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Coleman's Piperia

Platanthera colemanii

Also called Coleman's Rein Orchid

Coleman's Piperia
Photo: Matt Berger https://inaturalist.org/people/sheriff_woody_pct, CC BY 4.0

Coleman's piperia is a rare wild orchid from California's Sierra Nevada and one site in Colusa County, growing in sandy soils under conifers and in chaparral. It is a native species that is not commonly grown in gardens, so care notes are general rather than cultivation-tested.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade
Water
Keep the sandy soil lightly moist during the growing season and let it dry out between waterings, as it grows in a dry-summer climate.
Soil
Very sandy, well-drained, acidic forest soil or a gritty mix of sand and leaf mould.
Temperature
Cool to moderate, tolerant of cold winters; protect from prolonged heat above 30 °C.
How easy
Hard
Native range
N. & EC. California
Climate
temperate

About

Platanthera colemanii is a rare species of orchid known by the common names Coleman's piperia and Coleman's rein orchid. It is endemic to California, where it is known from scattered occurrences along the Sierra Nevada and one disjunct location in Colusa County, California. It grows in coniferous forests and chaparral in deep sandy substrates. It was differentiated from the very similar Platanthera unalascensis in 1993.

It grows erect to about half a meter in maximum height. The basal leaves are narrow and almost grasslike, measuring up to 16 centimeters long and no more than 2 wide. Leaves higher on the stem are much reduced. The upper part of the stem is a spikelike inflorescence of up to 100 small flowers. The unscented translucent green flowers have curved sepals and sickle-shaped, curving petals a few millimeters in length. The flower can be distinguished from that of P.

Other Platanthera plants

Platanthera unalascensis · Rein orchid · Green Platanthera · Northern green orchid · Hochstetter's Butterfly Orchid · Platanthera bakeriana · Platanthera bhutanica · Lesser butterfly-orchid · White fringed orchid · Shortflowered bog orchid · Platanthera calceoliformis · Platanthera carnosilabris

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Platanthera colemanii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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