Platanthera obtusata Lindley 1835

• Main Author: D. M. Moore (ed.)
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Cambridge University Press 1980
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Plantae; Tracheophyta; Liliopsida; Asparagales; Orchidaceae; Platanthera; Platanthera obtusata; Arctic; Webb; Lindley; Fennoscandia; Lysiella oligantha; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6283111; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6283111

5. P. obtusata (Pursh) Lindley, op. cit. 284 (1835). Roots cord-like, fleshy but scarcely tuberous. Plant 6-20 cm. Foliage- leaf solitary, basal, 4-6 x 1 -5-2 cm, elliptical, tapered to a sheath­ ing base which is largely enclosed in a hyaline sheath representing a second basal leaf; a third leaf, small and bract-like, is present on upper part of stem. Spike short, rather dense; flowers 3-6, greenish-white. Perianth-segments2-3 mm. Labellum 3-3-5 mm, rhombic-lanceolate, horizontal or somewhat deflexed. Spur 2-5-3 mm, curved, half as long as ovary. 2n= 126. 1 By D. A. Webb. Calcareous mountain heaths. Arctic Fennoscandia. No Su. (E. & E. C. Asia, North America.) The European plant belongs to subsp.oligantha (Turcz.) Hultén, Lunds Univ. Ârsskr. nov. ser., 39(1): 481 (1943) (P.oligantha Turcz., Lysiella oligantha (Turcz.) Nevski), which is also found in E. Siberia. Subsp.obtusata, which is confined to America, has an obovate leaf, a laxer spike, a longer, narrower labellum and a longer spur. Plants from E. North America are very distinct from those from Europe and Asia, but intermediates are found in Alaska. Published as part of D. M. Moore (ed.), 1980, CCIII Orchidaceae, pp. 325-350 in Flora Europaea, Vol 5: Alismataceae to Orchidaceae, Camebridge :Cambridge University Press on pages 331-332, DOI:10.5281/zenodo.215522