Scientific name: Platanthera chlorantha (Custer) Rchb.
Common name: Greater Butterfly-orchid
Description
Habit: Plant with 2 ellipsoid underground tubers with tapering apices; sturdy; 30-50cm high, occasionally taller.
Leaves: Stem bearing, near the base, a single pair of almost opposite large, oval leaves, 5-15cm long and a few much smaller ones higher-up.
Flowers: Flowers pure white to greenish-white, 18-25mm across, fragrant, in a rather lax spike; lateral sepals spreading; upper one erect, forming a hood with the petals; labellum linear-oblong, entire, longer than the sepals; spur club-shaped, tip obtuse, longer than the ovary; ovary curved and twisted, stalkless.
Habitat: Dune slacks, pastures and meadows, eskers, pavement and quarries and meadows, fens and lakeshores.
Distribution: Frequent in most districts, though less so in the South-west.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No