Galearis spectabilis(L.) Raf.

showy orchis

WFO wfo-0000967866 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–g

Galearis spectabilis, photographed by Edward Hellerman
fig. a Edward Hellerman, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-14 / obs. 197681277
Galearis spectabilis, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. b Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 199353704
Galearis spectabilis, photographed by edufford
fig. c edufford, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202049337
Galearis spectabilis, photographed by Jeff Clark
fig. d Jeff Clark, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205626915
Galearis spectabilis, photographed by Mark Richman
fig. e Mark Richman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197402191
Galearis spectabilis, photographed by Brian Henderson
fig. f Brian Henderson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196761722
Galearis spectabilis, photographed by Annie Weissman
fig. g Annie Weissman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197082114

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 3,211 observations

Peak flowering in Apr, from 3,211 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 14 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Galearis biflora Raf.
  • Galearis spectabilis f. albiflora (Ulke) C.F.Reed
  • Galearis spectabilis f. gordinieri (House) R.E.Whiting & Catling
  • Galearis spectabilis f. willeyi (F.Seym.) P.M.Br.
  • Galeorchis spectabilis (L.) Rydb.
  • Galeorchis spectabilis f. gordinieri House
  • Habenaria humilis (Michx.) Sw.
  • Habenaria spectabilis (L.) Spreng.
  • Orchis humilis Michx.
  • Orchis spectabilis L.
  • Orchis spectabilis f. albiflora Ulke
  • Orchis spectabilis f. gordinierii Weath.
  • Orchis spectabilis f. willeyi F.Seym.
  • Orchis spectabilis var. lilacina Ames

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.