''Platanthera elegans'' is a species of
orchid known by several common names, including elegant piperia, coast piperia, hillside rein orchid, and hillside bogorchid. This is a showy flowering plant native to western North America.
It grows from a
caudex
A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695
In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...
tuber and sends up a thick stem just under a meter in maximum height. The stem is topped with a cylindrical spike inflorescence of densely packed flowers with curving white to greenish-yellow petals.
Coastal individuals are noticeably thicker and have more flowers than those that grow further inland; it is uncertain if these are variants, subspecies, or even separate species. They are both currently treated as ''P. elegans''. Other species of ''Plantanthera'', notably the endangered species ''
P. yadonii'' are quite similar in appearance to some populations of this species.
References
External links
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Photo gallery
elegans
Orchids of North America
{{Orchidoideae-stub