This section is from the book "Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers", by Caroline A. Creevey. Also available from Amazon: Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers.
Family, Orchis. (See description of the Family, p. 6.) This species may be recognized by its square, cut-off lip (truncate) and long spur. Near the base of the lip is a small protuberance, called a tubercle. Where the lip is joined to the flower it has two arrow-like lobes. Flowers arranged in bracted spikes. Leaves on the stem, the lower broader than the upper, all pointed at apex. 1 to 2 feet high. June and July.
Common in wet grounds in the Atlantic States. Tall, Leafy Green Orchis
H. hyperborea. - This species has a leafy stem on which the flowers extend, sometimes below the middle, in a long, thick loose spike. Lip, narrow, lance-shaped. Spur, about equal in length to the lip. May to August.
Height about 2 feet. In peat bogs and damp woods north and westward. Found 4,000 feet high in Vermont.
 
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