Plant of the Week

Eastern prairie fringed orchis
Platanthera leucophaea (Nutt.) Lindley
other common names: prairie white-fringed orchid, eastern prairie fringed orchid


Western prairie fringed orchis
Platanthera praeclara Sheviak & Bowles
other common names: Great Plains prairie fringed orchid, western prairie fringed orchid, western greenish-fringed orchis
Platanthera: from Greek, meaning “broad anthers.” (This plant is sometimes placed in a separate fringed orchid genus called Blephariglottis, Latin for “eyelid tongued,” in obvious reference to the fringed lip of the flower.)
Leucophaea: from Latin leuco, meaning “white,” and phaea, meaning “dusky.”
Praeclara: from Latin, meaning “noble” or “distinguished”
Orchid family: Orchidaceae
Photo: Platanthera praeclara


Photograph by Thomas Rosburg, Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie: The Upper Midwest, Second Edition