Flowers for the garden
Fringed Platanthera
H. ciliaris
Family Orchidaceae. Grows on acidic soil in meadows, sphagnum bogs and in forests in the warm-temperate and subtropical zones of North America.
Fringed Platanthera 30-75 cm tall. Roots thin, with lateral offshoots. Stem thin, slender. Leaves lanceolate, acute, 10-20 cm long and 1.2-3.6 cm wide; the uppermost leaf small and narrow. Raceme dense, many-flowered, 7.5-15 cm long and up to 7.5 cm wide, sometimes rather loose. Flowers orange or yellow, about 2 cm long (without spur). Sepals rounded or broadly ovate, 0.4-0.8 cm long; the lateral ones usually reflexed. Petals considerably narrower than the sepals, narrowly oblong or cuneate, toothed at the tip. Lip elongated, without lobes, 1-1.5 cm long, abundantly ciliate-fringed. Spur 1.5-3.5 cm long, very thin. Flowers from mid to late summer.
The most beautiful of the orchids. It should be grown on marshy or sandy soils with adequate watering. It is cultivated in the Netherlands.
