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Platanthera dilatata
Also called White Bog Orchid, Boreal Bog Orchid, Bog Candles, Fragrant White Bog Orchid, Fragrant White Rein Orchid, Leafy White Orchid, Scent Bottle
Tall white bog orchid (Platanthera dilatata) is a native North American orchid that grows up to about 1.3 m tall, with fragrant white flower spikes. It grows best in cool, wet, sunny sites such as bogs, fens and marsh edges, and is hard to keep in a garden.
Platanthera dilatata, known as tall white bog orchid, bog candle, or boreal bog orchid is a species of orchid, a flowering plant in the family Orchidaceae, native to North America. It was first formally described in 1813 by Frederick Traugott Pursh as Orchis dilatata.
It is sometimes called fragrant white bog orchid or scentbottle, for the smell of its flowers, described as intensely spicy or clove-like.
British Columbian Native Americans used the sweet-smelling flowers in washing themselves.
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 dilatata 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.
