Our Native Iowa Orchids
Orchids are often thought of as rare, fragile
objects of art, existing only in tropical forests and greenhouses. In
reality nothing, could be further from the truth. Orchids exist worldwide
from the artic to the tip of Tierra del Fuego. Orchids are absent only
from the driest deserts and the wettest habitats. Orchids in temperate
Iowa exist as terrestrial plants quite different from their epiphytic cousins
that inhabit much of the tropics and subtropics. The orchid family
(Orchidaceae) is large and is represented in Iowa by 32 species in 13 genera and
include some of our rarest plants. The most beautiful and showy native
Iowa orchids have been at risk of being collected or dug up for most of this
century. Many of our native Iowa orchids require a special fungi present
in the soil to survive. For this reason, transplanting them almost always
fails.
Below is a list of orchids that exist in Iowa:
- Aplectrum hyemale - Putty Root, Adam and Eve
- Calopogon tuberosus var. tuberosus - Grass Pink
Orchid
- Coeloglossum viride var. virescens - Bracted Green
Orchid, Long-Bracted Green Orchid
- Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata - Spotted
Coral-Root
- Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis - Spotted
Coral-Root, Large Coral-Root, Many-Flowered Coral-Root
- Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. odontorhiza - Autumn
Coral-Root
- Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. pringlei - Autumn
Coral-Root
- Cypripedium candidum - Small White Lady’s Slipper, White Ladies’
Slipper, Little White Orchid, Ducks, Squirrel Shoes
- Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum - Small Yellow
Lady's Slipper, Southern Small Yellow Lady’s Slipper
- Cypripedium parvifloum var. makasin - Northern Small
Yellow Lady’s Slipper
- Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens - Large Yellow
Lady’s Slippers
- Cypripedium reginae - Showy Lady's Slipper, Queen Lady's
Slipper, Large White Lady’s Slipper, Big Pink and White, Moccasin Flower
- Galearis spectabilis - Showy Orchis, Purple-Hooded Orchis,
Two-Leaved Orchis
- Goodyera pubescens - Downy Rattlesnake Plantian
- Liparis lilifolia - Purple Twayblade, Lily-Leaved Twayblade,
Large Twayblade, Mauve Sleekwort
- Liparis loeselii - Bog Twayblade, Fen Orchid, Green Twayblade,
Loesel’s Bog Orchid, Loesel’s Twayblade, Yellow Twayblade
- Malaris unifolia - Green Adder’s Mouth
- Plananthera clavellata var. ophioglossoides - Small Green
Wood Orchid
- Plananthera flava var. herbiola - Tubercled
Rein-Orchid
- Plananthera hookeri - Hooker’s Orchid
- Plananthera huronensis - Tall Northern Green Orchid, Tall Green
Bog-Orchid, Tall Leafy Green Orchid
- Plananthera hyperborea var. hyperborea - Northern Leafy
Green Orchid, Green-Flowered Bog Orchid, Bog Candle, Leafy Orchid, Northern
Orchid, Northern Rein Orchid
- Plananthera lacera - Green Fringed Orchid, Ragged Fringed
Orchid, Ragged Orchid
- Plananthera leucophaea - Prairie Fringed Orchid, Prairie
White-Fringed Orchid, Western Greenish-Fringed Orchid
- Plananthera praeclara - Western Prairie Fringed Orchid
- Plananthera psychodes - Purple Fringed Orchid, Small Purple
Fringed Orchid, Lesser Purple Fringed Orchid, Butterfly Orchid
- Pogonia ophioglossoides var. ophioglossoides - Rose
Pogonia
- Spiranthes cernua - Ladies’ Tresses, Common Ladies’ Tresses,
Drooping Ladies’ Tresses, Nodding Ladies’ Tresses, Screw Auger, Spike Orchid,
Wild Tuberose
- Spiranthes lacera var. lacera - Northern Slender Ladies’
Tresses
- Spiranthes magnicamporum - Great Plain’s Ladies’ Tresses
- Spiranthes romanzoffiana - Hooded Ladies’s Tresses
- Triphora trianthophora var. trianthophora - Three-Birds
Orchid, Nodding Pogonia
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