Orchid Family – Orchidaceae

The Slender Bog-orchid is also called Green Bog-Orchid. Older Latin names are Habenaria saccata, Platanthera saccata

Plant Description: Slender Bog-orchid is a perennial with green leaves, stems and flowers. The stems are erect, stout, smooth, and up to 3 feet tall with leaves all the way up the stem. There are from 5 to 50 waxy green flowers, evenly spaced along a comparatively short spike near the top. The stems have two sheathing bracts at the base. The leaves are oblong or oval, quite rounded at the ends, but become shorter, narrower and more pointed upward and are reduced to mere bracts in the flower inflorescence.  The flowers are tight to the stem and sometimes brownish tinged.

Flower Description: The sepals and petals are .25 inch long. The upper sepal and petals form a hood; the other two sepals flare out to the side. The flower has a spur which is inflated toward its upper end (like a sack) and points downward. The spur is one-third to two-thirds as long as the tongue-like lip and is sometimes hidden by the lip.

Ecology: Slender Bog-Orchids grow in wet or marshy places in meadows, along streams, in ditches, and around springs at low elevation to sub-alpine. This is a very common orchid.

Notes:

• The flowers of the Slender Bog-orchid are not fragrant.
• Sacatta means “sack-like” referring to the inflated, sack-like spur.
• See note about Rein-Orchids and Bog-Orchids on Orchid Family page.

Slender Bog-orchid Photo Gallery

Photo information: #4983 was taken on July 27, 2002 in the Swamp Lake area, I-90, exit 62 (Kachess Lake Road);  #5155, #5156, and  #5157 were taken on August 5, 2002 on the Van Trump Trail, Mt Rainier N.P., Longmire, WA;  #8907 and #8915  were taken on July 22, 2007 in the Mount Baker ski area, Hwy 542, Glacier, WA.

 

Actual flower size: ¼  inch across