Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Liliopsida -- monocotyledons

Family: Orchidaceae -- orchid

Common Name: elegant rein-orchid, hillside rein-orchid, elegant bog orchid

Species Code: HAEL2, PIELE4

Origin: Native to mesic grasslands, shrub thickets, and dry, open forest of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and Montana.

Rare: no

Form: forb; perennial from fleshy, tuberous roots; 12-60 cm tall, stems simple.

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: dry forest, hawthorn thickets, mesic prairie

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: basal leaves sessile, withering by anthesis, lanceolate to oblanceolate, tapering to the base; cauline leaves reduced to bracts, ovate to linear-lanceolate.

Mature height: 5-24 inches

Flowers: numerous, borne in a congested raceme, resupinate, pale green to white; spur 7-14 mm; lateral sepals joined to the lip and slightly longer than free dorsal sepal.

Flower color: greenish white

Bloom: July, August

Bloom starts on: early July

Bloom ends on: early August

Fruit: capsule, ascending to erect, 5-11 mm long, elliptic to oblong, nearly sessile.

Characteristics:
Piperia elegans (Lindl.) Rydb. is the preferred name. The Palouse phase is ssp. elegans.
Plants which key out to Habenaria greenei in Flora of the Pacific Northwest (Hitchcock &Cronquist 1973) on the basis of flower color are now placed in Piperia elegans. Habenaria maritima Greene is synonomous with Piperia maritima (Greene) Rydb. and both are now considered synonyms of Piperia elegans.
H. elegans in St. John 1963. P. elegans in Piper &Beattie 1914. Habenaria unalascensis var. elata (Jepson) Correll in Davis 1953.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Perennating organ is a tuber.
n=21 (Baldwin et al 2004).
Fruit is a capsule.
Flowers are perfect.
Flowers are protandrous and most likely outcrossed (Ackerman 1977).
Pollinated by moths of the family Noctuidae (Ackerman 1977).
Diploids only are known.

Sun requirement: partial shade, light shade, or full sun

Soil moisture: mesic

Sowing time: not recommended

Transplant time: not recommended

Seed comments: Native orchids or their seed should never be collected from the wild.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native perennial upland forb

Propagation:
Native orchids or their seed should never be collected from the wild. Enjoy them where they grow and leave them alone. Seed germination requires the use of special medium and techniques. Seed is dissimilar from seed of most other plants.
Must be grown on special media, germination is equal in light or dark (Arditti et al 1982).
Seeds will not germinate unless in the presence of a mycorrhizae species associated with the plant (Parish et al 1996).
Orchid seeds lack an endosperm, radicle, and leaf rudiments (Arditti et al 1981).
Native orchids do not do well in cultivation and will persist in the garden for only a few seasons. They should not be collected from the wild (Hitchcock &Cronquist 1973).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Habenaria elegans, Habenaria unalascensis and any other rein-orchids are members of the orchid family which grow in dappled shade under shrubs and Ponderosa pine. They should be enjoyed where they grow and left alone. Do not collect seed from them (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Ackerman, J. D. 1977. Biosystematics of the Genus Piperia Rydb. (Orchidaceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 75: 245-270.

Arditti, Joseph, Allison P. Oliva, and Justine D. Michaud. 1982. Practical Germination of North American and Related Orchids - II - Goodyera oblongifolia and G. tesselata. American Orchid Society Bulletin 51:394-397.

Arditti, Joseph, Justine D. Michaud, and Allison P. Oliva. 1981. Seed Germination of North American Orchids. I. Native California and Related Species of Calypso, Epipactis, Goodyera, Piperia, and Platanthera. Botanical Gazette 142:442-453.

Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 9/14/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Brown, Paul M. 2006. Wild Orchids of the Pacific Northwest and Canadian Rockies. University Press of Florida, Gainesville FL. 287 pp.

Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. 827 pp.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, and Arthur Cronquist. 1973. Flora of the Pacific Northwest. Univ. of Washington Press. Seattle, WA.

Parish, Roberta, Ray Coupe, and Dennis Lloyd. 1996. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 pp.

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium