| Piperia elegans | |||||||||||||||||
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Piperia elegans is a plant of the family Orchidaceae and the genus Piperia
Distribution[]
Plant is found growing terrestrially in the coniferous forest and coastal buffs of Oregon, California, and British Colombia at elevations of 500 to 700 meters
Description[]
Plant blooms in the fall with about a hundred 1.3 cm wide flowers. This is a showy flowering plant native to western North America. It grows from a caudex tuber and sends up a thick stem just under a meter in maximum height. The stem is topped with a cylindrical spike inflorescence of densely packed flowers with curving white to greenish-yellow petals. Coastal individuals are noticeably thicker and have more flowers than those that grow further inland; it is uncertain if these are variants, subspecies, or even separate species. They are both currently treated as P. elegans. Other species of Piperia, notably the endangered species P. yadonii are quite similar in appearance to some populations of this species.
Variants[]
| Image | Name | Description |
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Piperia elegans ssp. decurtata | Flowers have a short nectar spur and a clove redhots scent. |
Culture[]
Naming[]
Common name: elegant piperia, coast piperia, hillside rein orchid, hillside bogorchid
Synonyms[]
- Habenaria elegans (Lindl.) Bol. 1870
- Montolivaea elegans (Lindl.) Rydb. 1900
- *Platanthera elegans Lindl. 1835