Thursday, November 11, 2010

Broad-lipped Twayblade (Neottia convallarioides)

Often miscalled the Broad-leaved Twayblade rather than the Broad-lipped Twayblade, this rather unremarkable plant is quite rare (we know of only one location in Washington).  It is at first glance similar to the very common Northwestern Twayblade, Neottia banksiana, but lacks the black markings on the lip and also has a distinct notch at the end of the lip which the Northwestern Twayblade does not always have.  The leaves, too, are more round than the leaves of the Northwestern Twayblade and in my experience the plants are smaller than that species.  It is said to grow to 30 cm tall, but the plants we've seen have been less than 15 cm.  The flowers are 1.5 cm long and are a pale green color.  It seems to prefer damper areas than the other Twayblades and where we found it was growing near a seep or small stream.  Like the other Twayblades its name has changed from Listera to Neottia.




2 comments:

Angel Mar said...

What an original! Fantastic! Luck have found. Best regards

Ron said...

Thanks, Angel. We found the last of the native species today, so now we've seen and photographed all of them.