YELLOW FRINGED ORCHID
			Habenaria ciliaris
	HOME Botanical Terms Lists: Master Plant List Flowering Times List Flowers by Color/Type Endangered Species List Habitat List Use the 'back' button on your browser to return, if necessary.		Found along a Forest Service road, this single plant lit up its corner of the world. FAMILY: Orchid Family (Orchidaceae) DESCRIPTION: A 1 - 2 foot spike that ends in a large cluster (2 - 6" long) of showy deep orange to bright yellow flowers. Each flower has a long spur and a delicate, drooping fringed lip petal on the bottom. The leaves are largest at the base, lanceolate and sheathing the stem, about 3 - 10" long and are progressively shorter higher up the stem. FLOWERS: July to September HABITAT: An infrequent plant that sometimes appears singly in peaty or wet, sandy woods and the margins of thickets. Also, dry meadows and slopes.   OTHER INFORMATION: This species, along with the Orange Fringed Orchid frequently hybridize and can make definitive species identification troublesome. It is a native perennial that doesn't catch your breath until you're right up on it, being tucked in out of the way places. I never saw any insects on the plant while i watched it, so i can't tell you what might help pollinate it. OTHER OBSERVATIONS: My observations about this plant can be found at: OFFSITE INFORMATION: The International Bulb Society has another picture of this orchid.