small purple fringed orchid

not listed

N5? - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FACW - Facultative wetland

FACW - Facultative wetland

FACW - Facultative wetland

Small purple fringed orchid is a 17⅜″ to 40″ tall, slender, perennial, easily recognized orchid. It rises on a single stem from an underground tuber and 4 to 10 fleshy roots. The tuber is slender, vertical, and 1¼″ to 3⅛″ long. The roots are slender, thickened near the base, and 1¼″ to 3⅛″ long.

The stem is erect, stout, light green, hairless, and leafy, especially in the lower two-thirds.

There are 4 to 12 alternate leaves scattered along the stem. They are stalkless and wrap around the stem at the base (sheathing). They may be widely spreading, ascending, or bent backward near the tip. The lowest 2 to 4 leaves are large, lance-shaped, oblong ellipse-shaped, or oblong egg-shaped, 4″ to 6¾″ long, and ¾″ to 2¾″ wide. The upper and lower surfaces are hairless. The margins are untoothed. The leaves become gradually or abruptly shorter and narrower as they ascend the stem. Upper leaves are reduced to bracts.

The inflorescence is loose to dense, 1½″ to 8½″ long spike of 20 to 25 flowers at the end of the stem. Each flower is subtended by a hairless, untoothed, lance-shaped or linear bract. The bracts in the lower part of the inflorescence are 1½″ to 2″ long. They become gradually smaller as they approach the top of the inflorescence, where they are only about ⅜″ to ⅝″ long.

The flowers are stalked, showy, fragrant, and more than ⅜″ in diameter. They are upside down due to the twisting of the flower stalk. There are 3 lavender to rose-purple petals (2 lateral and one lower) alternating with 3 lavender to rose-purple, petal-like sepals (2 lateral and one upper). The filaments and style are united to form a column. The sepals are oblong to elliptic or inversely egg-shaped, ⅛″ to ¼″ long, untoothed, and hairless. The lateral petals are inversely egg-shaped to spoon-shaped and are irregularly and shallowly toothed at the tip. The upper sepal and two lateral petals spread upward and forward over the lower petal and column. The two lateral sepals are bent backward or spread to the sides of the lower petal. The lower (lip) petal is ¼″ to ½″ long, ¼″ to 9 ⁄16″ wide, and projects forward or downward. It is deeply divided into 3 fan-shaped segments. Each segment is fringed less than half way to the base. The lateral segments are slightly elevated above the lower segment. The lower segment is often 2-lobed. The base of the petal is modified into a narrow, curved, ⅝″ to ⅞″ long spur.

The fruit is several erect, narrowly ellipse-shaped, ribbed, ¼″ to ½″ long capsules.

17⅜″ to 40″

Purple

Greater purple fringed orchid (Platanthera grandiflora) is similar in appearance but does not occur in Minnesota.

Wet meadows; sedge meadows; thickets; thin woods; and shallow, moist, roadside ditches. Areas that are wet in spring and after a rain but are otherwise moist. Full or partial sun.

July 3 to August 20

Small purple fringed orchid is said to be long-lived, yet no part of the plant is ever more than 1½ years old. A new underground tuber is produced at the base of the aerial stem each year. During the summer the tuber separates from the aerial stem but remains attached by an underground stem (rhizome). The tuber generates roots but remains otherwise dormant for the rest of the growing season. The tuber is the only part of the plant that survives the winter and it is from the tuber that a new aerial stem rises the following spring.

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30.

Native

Uncommon

Plant

Inflorescence

Flowers

Leaves

Location: Pennington Co.