Habenaria elegans (Lindley) Bolander var. maritima (Greene) Ames; H. elegans var. multiflora (Rydberg) Peck; H. greenei Jepson; H. maritima Greene 1892, not Rafinesque 1833; H. unalascensis (Sprengel) S. Watson subsp. maritima (Greene) Calder & Roy L. Taylor; H. unalascensis var. maritima (Greene) Correll; Piperia maritima Rydberg; P. multiflora Rydberg

Plants 12–73(–100) cm. Flowers pleasantly scented or musky; petals and lip pale green to white; spur 7–14 mm; viscidia oblong, 0.6–1 mm, usually more than 2 times as long as wide.

Flowering Jun--Sep/Oct. Conifer and mixed evergreen forests, coastal scrub, exposed coastal bluff; 0--1700 m; B.C.; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash.

Plants on exposed coastal bluffs are shorter and stouter than plants in sheltered or inland localities. Plants in warmer interior locations flower earlier than those on the coast and have fewer stem bracts. The flowers are pollinated by noctuid moths (J. D. Ackerman 1977).

A population in San Francisco, California, is also unusual by having basally attenuate stems and by flowering very late (Sep–Oct).