!Galearis spectabilis (L.) Raf. 1833

Alba color form

Photos by Chuck McCartney

Plant in situ

Photo by Zachary Bradford

LATE and EARLY

Common Name The Showy Galearis

Flower Size about 1" [2.5 cm]

A cold growing species from eastern Canada to Iowa and Arkansas and then south to Georgia and Alabama at elevations around 1500 meters with two, basal, subopposite, suborbicular to broadly ellipitc, fleshy, dark green, indistinctly petiolate base leaves that blooms in the late spring and early summer on a terminal, erect, to 4" [10 cm] long, racemose, several [1 to 15] flowered inflorescence with leaf-like, lanceolate, shorter than the ovary floral bracts.

SynonymsGalearis biflora Raf. 1833; Galearis spectabilis (L.) Raf. 1833; Galearis spectabilis f. albiflora (Ulke) C.F.Reed 1987; Galearis spectabilis f. gordinieri (House) R.E.Whiting & Catling 1982; Galearis spectabilis f. willeyi (F.Seym.) P.M.Br. 1988; Galeorchis spectabilis f. gordinieri House 1923; Habenaria humilis (Michx.) Sw. 1829; Habenaria spectabilis (L.) Spreng. 1826; Orchis humilis Michx. 183?; Orchis spectabilis L. 1753; Orchis spectabilis f. albiflora Ulke 1938; Orchis spectabilis f. gordinieri Weath. 1931; Orchis spectabilis f. willeyi F.Seym. 1970; Orchis spectabilis var. lilacina Ames 1901

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Orchis spectabilis; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as Orchis spectabilis drawing good; AOS Bulletin Vol 33 No 5 1964 as Orchis spectabilis photo fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Orchis spectabilis; AOS Bulletin Vol 37 No 4 1968 as Orchis spectabilis photo fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 4 193 to 256 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1973; The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada Luer 1975 drawing/photos fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 5 1984 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 56 #5 1987 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 60 No 6/536 1991 photo fide; Schlechteriana Vol 4 No 4 1993; Phylogeny and Classification of the Orchid Family Dressler 1993 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 66 No 5 1997 photo fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 2 Part One Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase and Rasmussen 2001 photo/drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 71 No 6 2002 photo fide; AOS Bulletin vol 78 No 10 2009 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 79 #6 2010 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #8 2016 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 #3 2019 drawing fide;

Galearis spectabilis f. albiflora (Ulke) C.F.Reed 1987 Photo courtesy of Zachary Bradford

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