Yellow Fringed Orchid

Selection for longer spurs in response to local pollination pressures on the southeastern Coastal Plain has been documented in Platanthera ciliaris, but the extent of variation is minimal, and the situation does not appear to be comparable to that in P. blephariglottis.

Hybrids of Platanthera ciliaris with P. blephariglottis are P. × bicolor (Rafinesque) Luer and with P. cristata are P. × channellii Folsom; until recently the latter was confused with P. chapmanii (J. P. Folsom 1984).

Plants 24–100 cm. Leaves 2–4, spreading to ascending, gradually to somewhat abruptly reduced to bracts distally; blade lanceolate to lance-elliptic, 5–40 × 0.6–6 cm. Spikes rather dense. Flowers resupinate, showy, orange; dorsal sepal entire or rarely emarginate; lateral sepals reflexed; petals linear to linear-cuneate, margins apically fringed; lip porrect to descending, oblong to broadly ovate-spatulate, without basal thickening, 8–19 × 4–18 mm, margins deeply filiform-fringed; spur slenderly cylindric, rarely slightly clavate, 20–35 mm; rostellum lobes scarcely to markedly curving forward, slightly spreading, angular-elongate; pollinaria with stalks nearly straight to curved forward; pollinia remaining enclosed in anther sacs; viscidia orbiculate; ovary slender, 12–27 mm.

Ont.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Mich., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., W. Va.

Flowering (Jun--)Jul--Sep.

Moist sandy and peaty meadows, marshes, prairies, pine savannas, open woods, wet wooded flats, seeping slopes, roadsides, dry wooded slopes, sphagnum bogs; 0--1700m.

Orchis ciliaris Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 939. 1753; Habenaria ciliaris (Linnaeus) R. Brown

Platanthera ciliaris, commonly known as the yellow fringed orchid, yellow-fringed orchid, or orange-fringed orchid, is a large and showy species of orchid. It grows in "acid soil of hillside seepage bogs" in the longleaf pine landscapes of the Gulf Coast of the United States. Like many species in these habitats, including flatwoods, it is dependent upon recurring fire to create open conditions. Further north it is found in bogs, but even here it may be dependent upon fire to create open conditions.

It is pollinated by large butterflies, mostly swallowtails.

The species is at risk in some areas from loss of habitat and collecting. For example, it is endangered in Michigan. It has been recorded from extreme southern Ontario, but is now thought to be extirpated.