Pretty Calopogon

Family: Orchidaceae. Grows in wet meadows and marshy places in the temperate and subtropical zones of eastern North America.

Plants 15-48 cm tall. Stem single-leaved, less often two-leaved, with a tuberous-bulbous base covered with scales (sheaths of last year's leaves). Leaf linear-lanceolate, up to 25 cm long, sheathing. Inflorescence - a long, lax raceme of 3-15 flowers. Flowers large, about 4 cm in diameter, pink-purple or fuchsia-raspberry, less often white. Sepals and petals very similar to each other, oval-lanceolate, acute, spreading to the sides. The lip is equal to the column in length, linear-elongate below, broadly triangular in the upper part, with yellow, orange and pink club-shaped hairs. The column is somewhat curved, two-winged at the top. Anther single, apical; pollinia numbering 4. Capsule oblong, almost straight. Flowers in summer.

Known in cultivation in Western Europe, grown in rock gardens.