Beard-flower [Greek pogonias, bearded, alluding to bearded lip]

Charles J. Sheviak & Paul M. Catling

Herbs, perennial, terrestrial, rather succulent. Roots few, scattered along slender rootstock producing shoots at wide intervals, slender, fibrous. Stems slender, solitary leaves inserted toward middle. Leaves ascending; blade fleshy-leathery. Inflorescences terminal, solitary flower or 2-flowered racemes; floral bracts foliaceous, prominent. Flowers resupinate, showy; lip bearing prominent adaxial fleshy crests divided into distinct cylindric processes, margins laciniate; pollinia 2, viscidia absent; stigma flat. Fruits capsules.

Species 3 (1 in the flora): temperate regions, North America, e Asia.

SELECTED REFERENCE

Ames, O. 1905–1922. Orchidaeceae: Illustrations and Studies of the Family Orchidaceae Issuing from the Ames Botanical Laboratory…. 7 vols. Boston and New York. Vol. 7.

Lower Taxon

• Pogonia ophioglossoides (Linnaeus) Ker Gawler