Platanthera aquilonis
Green-Flowered Bog-Orchid
Column
Center Block, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park
12-July-2011
The stamen, style and stigma are united in a structure called the column or gynostegium. There is a single anther but the anther is split into two clearly separated "half-anthers". Each half anther contains a coherent mass of pollen called a pollinium attached to a sticky plate called a viscidium via a stalk called a caudicle. Note each pollinium is still enclosed in an anther sac. As the flower matures the pollinia will detach themselves from their anther sacs and fall loosely onto the stigma. This does not happen in P. hyperborea (see below).
In the past, this species has been included in Platanthera hyperborea. However, P. hyperborea is a tetraploid species native to Iceland and Greenland whereas this is a diploid species native to North America.
Aquilonis: Answers to key questions in Lilies, Irises & Orchids of Saskatchewan by Vernon L. Harms and Anna L. Leighton leading to this species. The answers are in the order you would normally work through the key.
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Platanthera: Answers to key questions in Lilies, Irises & Orchids of Saskatchewan by Vernon L. Harms and Anna L. Leighton leading to this genus. The answers are in the order you would normally work through the key.
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Orchidaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family.
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