Downy Rattlesnake Plantain Orchid in PA
The Downy Rattlesnake Plantain started opening its blooms this week. Each of these orchids has a few dozen quarter-inch long blooms at the top of a fuzzy stem with about a third of the blooms open.
You can see why this orchid is called ‘downy’ as all parts of it seem to be fuzzy with soft, downy hairs.
Here’s a similar photo taken without a flash. Details of the open flowers are more visible.
Three sepals are the same white color as the petals, except for a tinge of green at the sepals’ edge. The two upper petals are merged into a hood. The lower petal is enlarged into the typical cupped lip of an orchid.
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[...] the vicinity or same microhabitat of the hepatica plants pictured here, we find downy rattlesnake plantain, a member of the Orchid family. Its perennial, cross-veined leaves are hiding among the leaf [...]
Posted on March 30, 2010 at 10:00 am