This large, striking, purple-striped, yellow-flowered Orchid is an early bloomer, and is found immediately after its lovely pink sister, the Moccasin Flower. It is not at all uncommon, yet enough so to warrant our elation whenever we happen to run across it. This handsome plant is covered with fine hairs, and its leafy stalk rises from one to two feet in height. The alternating oval, pointed leaves are parallel ribbed, and clasp the stalk. The large, showy, pale yellow lip, or pouch, is streaked with purple lines, and near the top it encloses a tuft of white, jointed hairs. The broad, pointed sepals and very long, narrow, twisted and curling side petals, are greenish yellow, streaked with brownish purple. The usually solitary and scentless flower swings from the top of the stalk with an outward gesture, and is found in bogs and moist hilly woods and thickets, from Nova Scotia to Ontario and Minnesota, south to Nebraska, Colorado, Arkansas and Alabama, from May to July. The roots are used as a nerve tonic, and the odour is rather heavy and disagreeable. The hairs on this species yield an oil that is poisonous.