Listera nipponica

Family: Orchidaceae. Listera nipponica grows in shaded spruce and fir forests of the Far East. A Japanese species occurring at the edge of its range.

A plant with a slender rhizome. Stems erect, 15–23 cm tall, above the leaves thinner, slightly glandular-pubescent, without small reduced leaves, below the leaves glabrous. Leaves 2 in number, bright green, opposite, sessile, cordate-reniform or ovate-deltate, with a short acuminate tip, glossy, 1.7–2.6 cm long, 1.8–3.6 cm wide. Raceme sparse, 3–8 cm long with 5–12 flowers. Flowers yellowish-green on glabrous pedicels 4.5–8 mm long. Bracts 3 mm long. Perianth segments (tepals) oval-lanceolate, obtuse; outer and inner segments almost equal in length; the lip nearly twice as long as them, 0.5 cm long, obcordate, with an emarginate apex and a small tooth at the base of the notch between the obtuse lobes, and with 2 obtuse teeth at the base. Flowers in July–August. Reproduction by seed and vegetatively.