Malaxis paludosa (Bog Adder's Mouth) - photos and description
General: Tiny orchid with a very slender growth habit. Plant glabrous, stems square. These plants are very difficult to spot because of their tiny size, are about the size of a matchstick.
Flowers:
Our smallest native
orchid, have the profile of a toothpick. Inflorescence is a narrow
spike, flowers greenish, only 5 mm long, 3 mm wide. The lip and dorsal
sepal have flipped positions, the lip is erect, with greenish stripes.
The lateral petals and sepals are all greenish, the lateral petals and
sepals bent backwards, the sepals noticeably larger than the lateral
petals. The dorsal sepal below the lip, at a 6 o’clock position.
Leaves: Leaves cauline, alternate, clasp the stem, usually two, obovate, we measured a leaf at 22 mm long and 10 mm wide.
Height: Height is listed in Budd's Flora to 15 cm, we measured plants to 13 cm tall.
Habitat: Growing on sphagnum moss in wet coniferous woods, boreal forest.
Abundance: This plant has been ranked uncommon /rare with a conservation rank of S3 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre. This plant has been extremely rare in our experience.
Origin: Native.
Synonym: Listed in some authorities online as Hammarbya paludosa.
When and where photographed: Photos taken July 12th, wet black spruce woods, Nisbet Provincial Forest, about 350 km north of our home in Regina, SK.