Calypso (Calypso Bulbosa)

Calypso (Calypso Bulbosa) is a rare and locally distributed orchid found along the northern edge of the U. S. and in Canada. It has a single magenta-pink flower at the top of a slender scape 4 to 8 in. long. The sepals and petals are similar and ascending; the lip is sac-shaped similar to that of the genus Cypripedium; it is spotted with madder-purple and has three rows of glass-like hairs near its division. A single oval, wavy, veiny leaf grows on a triangular petiole from the corm at the base of the scape.

A. Snake Mouth,; Pogonia.

Pogonia ophioglossoides.

B. Nodding Pogonia.

Pogonia trianthophora.

Pogonia; Snake-Mouth (Pogonia Ophioglos-Soides)

Pogonia; Snake-Mouth (Pogonia Ophioglos-Soides) is another of our attractive orchids that leads the enthusiast a merry chase, often through miles of tangled swamp, before he finally discovers it in some almost impenetrable bog. It has been my experience that, in the southern parts of their ranges, all the ' rare orchids are more easily get-at-able than in northern United States, perhaps because in the North they are hunted so persistently and plucked so freely when found, that they can survive only in the most out of the way places.

Snake-mouth is delicate, pure pink in color and slightly fragrant. Its pollen is not in stemmed masses but is showered on the back of a visiting insect as he backs out of the flower. The stem is from 8 to 13 inches high, bearing at its top a single flower; sepals and petals are similar in shape; the lip is spatulate, prominently crested with yellow and white, and toothed and lacerated. About midway of the flower stem is a single oval leaf and just below the flower is a smaller bract-like one. Pogonia grows in swamps from Newfoundland to Minn, and southwards to the Gulf of Mexico, flowering during June and July.

Nodding Pogonia (P. Trianthophora)

Nodding Pogonia (P. Trianthophora) has a leafy stem from 2 to 8 inches high. From two to eight small oval leaves alternately clasp the stem; the flowers, which number from one to six, appear singly from the axils of the upper leaves, nodding on slender peduncles; they are small, magenta-pink and with ovate, three-lobed lips. It is locally distributed from Me. to Wise, and southwards.

Pogonia divaricata is a southern species found in pine barrens from N. J. to Ga. The plant stem, clasped by a single oblong leaf at its middle, is 8 to 20 in. high and bears a single large flower with ascending brown sepals, pink petals and a 3-lobed lip.

A. Whorled Pogonia.

Pogonia verticillata.

B. Showy Orchis.

Orchis spectabilis.

Whorled Pogonia (Pogonia Verticillata)

Whorled Pogonia (Pogonia Verticillata) has a single flower on a long stem, 8 to 12 in. high; the sepals are greenish-yellow, long, linear, with the edges rolled or folded together; the petals are oblong-lanceolate and purple; the lip is also purple, wedged-shaped, three-lobed and with a hairy crest down the middle. Five lanceolate and stemless leaves are in a whorl about the stem just below the flower. It is a peculiar, inconspicuous plant found locally in moist woods from Me. to Wise, and southwards.