WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 87 



Large Coralroot 



Corallorrhiza maculata Rafinesque 



Figure VIII. page 73 



Stems stout or slender, 8 to 20 inches high, with a large mass of coral- 

 like branching rootstocks, the stem purplish, clothed with several appressed 

 scales, devoid of green leaves or green color. Flowers ten to thirty, form- 

 ing a terminal raceme 2 to 8 inches long, purplish brown; sepals and petals 

 linear-lanceolate, about one-fourth of an inch long; lip white, spotted and 

 lined with crimson, oval or ovate in outline, deeply three-lobed, crenulate; 

 spur yellowish. Fruiting capsules ovoid or oblong, one-half to two-thirds of 

 an inch long and drooping. 



In woods, Nova Scotia to British Columbia, south to Florida, Missouri, 

 New Mexico and California. Flowering from July to September. 



The Early Coralroot (Corallorrhiza corallorrhiza (Linnaeus) 

 Karsten) blooms in May and June. It has smaller flowers of a dull- 

 purple color; sepals and petals about one-fourth of an inch long and a 

 whitish, oblong lip; spur reduced to a small protuberance adnate to the 

 summit of the ovary. Common in moist woods. 



The Small or Late Coralroot (Corallorrhiza odontorhiza 

 (Willdenow) Nuttall) blooms from July to September. It is 6 to 15 inches 

 high and very slender. Flowers purplish; sepals and petals about one- 

 sixth of an inch long or less, marked with purple lines; lip entire or den- 

 ticulate, whitish, spotted with purple. A rather rare plant of moist woods. 

 All the species of Coralroot are devoid of green leaves or green coloring 

 matter in the stems, because of their parasitic or saprophytic habit. 



Lizard' s-tail Family 



Saururaceae 

 Lizard' s-tail 



Saururus cernniis Linnaeus 



Plate 44 



Stem 2 to 5 feet high from a slender rootstock, jointed, pubescent when 

 young, becoming smooth. Leaves ovate, thin, palmately five to nine- 

 ribbed, dark green, entire, deeply cordate at the base, acuminate, 3 to 6 



