Pl. 113 c, d; Map 463

E. latifolia (L.) All.

Plants with short rhizomes. Flowering stems 30–80 cm tall, pubescent with short, crinkly hairs, with a usually 1‑sided raceme of 6–30 flowers. Leaves 3–7, alternate on the flowering stems, grading into the reduced leaflike bracts subtending the flowers, 3–10 cm long, ovate to lanceolate, green, glabrous or nearly so. Sepals 6–10 mm long, ovate, green variously tinged with pink or purple, the lateral sepals curved slightly downward. Lateral petals 6–10 mm long, ovate, purple to pink or green. Lip 6–11 mm long, ovate, the basal half pouchlike (holding nectar) and purple to brown, the apical half triangular and somewhat recurved, green and tinged variously with pink or purple. Column 4–5 mm long, white. Stamen 1, staminodes lacking. Capsules pendant to spreading downward, 10–16 mm long, broadly elliptic in outline, strongly ribbed. 2n=36–44. June–September.

Introduced in Jasper and St. Louis Counties (native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, escaped from cultivation sporadically in North America, mostly in the northeastern U.S.). Moist, shaded stream banks along limestone bluffs, and disturbed, mesic, wooded areas near homes.

This species is the only introduced orchid in Missouri. It has spread widely and sporadically in the United State and adjacent Canada, becoming invasive in forests around the Great Lakes. In Missouri it was first collected in 1928, and a second population was only found in 1983 (Summers, 1981). The flowers are pollinated by wasps and show relatively great variation in the degree of pink to purple tinging.