Snakemouth Orchid

Plants 4–70 cm. Leaves: blade elliptic, narrowly lanceolate, lance-ovate, or oblong, 14–120 × 4–32 mm. Inflorescences: floral bracts conspicuous, foliaceous, 7–37 × 2–12 mm. Flowers solitary or 2-flowered raceme, pink or rarely white or bluish, gaping, showy; sepals oblong, oblong-elliptic, or narrowly lanceolate, 14–23 × 3–7 mm; petals elliptic to lance-obovate, 13–25 × 3–11 mm; lip spatulate, 12–25 × 4–10 mm, margins involute, lacerate; crest often white, yellow, or green toward base. Capsules erect, ellipsoid, 14–30 × 4–8 mm. 2n = 18.

St. Pierre and Miquelon; Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N. Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn, Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Flowering spring--summer.

Sphagnum bogs, poor fens, moist acidic sandy meadows and prairies, open wet woods, wet pine flatwoods, pine savannas, cypress swamps, sandy-peaty stream banks, seepage slopes, ditches, roadcuts, rarely calcareous fens; 0--1100m.

Arethusa ophioglossoides Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 951. 1753; Pogonia ophioglossoides var. brachypogon Fernald

Pogonia ophioglossoides, the snakemouth orchid or rose pogonia, is a species of orchid occurring from central Canada to the east-central and eastern United States. It is the type species of the genus Pogonia. It is pollinated by bees. This species occurs in wet habitats. In the north, the habitat is typically fens but sometimes also bogs. Further south, along the Gulf Coast, it is a species of wet pine savannas and flatwoods.