Platanthera sparsiflora (S.Watson) Schltr. 1899
Photo by Jim Fowler and his P-Base Orchid North American Orchid Website
LATE
and 
Common Name or Meaning The Few Flowered Platanthera - The Few Flowered Rein Orchis
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Oregon, California, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico in open wet meadows, roadside ditches, seeps, fens, bogs and river gravels at elevations of 100 to 3350 meters as a medium to large sized, cold growing terrestrial orchid with 4 to 10 cauline, oblong to linear-lanceolate leaves that gradually reduce to bracts towards the inflorescence that blooms in the late spring and summer on a terminal, erect, loose, laxly 20 to 100 flowered inflorescence.
Synonyms Habenaria aggregata Howell 1902; Habenaria leucostachys var. viridis Jeps. 1921; *Habenaria sparsiflora S.Watson 1877; Habenaria sparsiflora var. laxiflora (Rydb.) Correll 1943; Habenaria thurberi var. grayi S.Watson 1868; Limnorchis ensifolia Rydb. 1901; Limnorchis laxiflora Rydb. 1901; Limnorchis sparsiflora (S.Watson) Rydb. 1901; Platanthera sparsiflora var. ensifolia (Rydb.) Luer 1975
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 4 Ames 1910 as Habenaria sparsifolia drawing fide; Native Orchids of North America Correll 1950 as Habenaria sparsiflora drawing fide; Native Orchids of North America Correll 1950 as Habenaria sparsiflora var breviflora drawing fide; Native Orchids of North America Correll 1950 as Habenaria sparsiflora var laxifloradrawing fide; Orchids of Guatemala Ames & Correl 1952; AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 5 1961 photo as Habenaria sparsifolia var laxiflora; The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada Luer 1975 drawing/photos fide; The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada Luer 1975 as P sparsiflora var brevifolia drawing/photos fide; The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada Luer 1975 as P sparsiflora var ensifoliadrawing/photos fide; Orchids of Guatemala and Beliz Ames & Correll 1985; Wild Orchids of the Pacific Northwest and Canadian Rockies P M Brown 2006; Orchid Digest Vol 74 #2 2010 photo ok?; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 # 3 2017 photo fide
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