ORCHIDACEAE ORCHIS FAMILY 
PURPLE FRINGED ORCHIS 
Habenaria psycodes (L.) Sw. 
The Purple Fringed Orchis grows in wet woods, meadows 
and swamps from Newfoundland to Minnesota and south to 
North Carolina and westward. It has fleshy, somewhat tuberous 
roots and a slender leafy stem 1-3 feet 
high. Leaves vary from oval to lanceo- 
late and are 2-10 inches long and 1-3 
inches wide. 
This increasingly rare Orchid blooms 
in July and August. The lilac or purplish 
and delicately fragrant flowers are 
borne in a dense raceme 2-6 inches long. 
The upper sepal is a little narrower than 
the lower ovate 2, and the 2 lateral 
petals are oblong and toothed along 
the upper margin. The lip is 3-parted, 
the segments fan shaped and beauti- 
fully fringed. At the base the lip is 
extended into a spur about three- 
quarters of an inch long. The pollen is 
in the form of pollinia. 
The White Fringed Orchis, Habenaria 
leucophaea (Nutt.) Gray, is abundant 
locally across the northern third of the 
state. The stout, angled stem, 14%4-2% feet 
high, bears the lanceolate leaves 4-8 
inches long, and is tipped with the 3-5- 
inch, loosely flowered spike. The large 
flowers are fragrant and white, sometimes 
tinged with green. The obovate petals 
are cut toothed and about one-quarter 
inch long, and the 3 wedge-shaped 
segments of the half-inch lip are copiously 
fringed. The spur is 1-1¥% inches long. 
In northern Illinois bogs and swamps 
the Tall Green Orchis, Habenaria hyper- 
borea (L.) R. Br., may be found. The 
2-3-foot stem bears many lanceolate leaves 2-12 inches long and is 
topped by a narrow 2-8-inch spike of greenish yellow flowers. Sepals 
and petals are oval, blunt and one-quarter inch long, and the some- 
what larger lip is deflexed and bears at its base a blunt, narrow spur 
as long as itself. 
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