Liparis loeselii(L.) Rich.

bog twaybladefen orchidyellow widelip orchid

WFO wfo-0000228284 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Liparis loeselii, photographed by Tom Field
fig. a Tom Field, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-18 / obs. 148859911

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
02206914
Filed as
Liparis loeselii (L.) Rich.
Det. by
H. M. Denslow
Collected
E. P. Bicknell 1890-10-12
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 73 botanical countries

Regions where Liparis loeselii is native: Altay, Kazakhstan, Sakhalin, West Siberia, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Alabama, Alberta, Arkansas, British Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin AltayKazakhstanSakhalinWest SiberiaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyHungaryItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineAlabamaAlbertaArkansasBritish ColumbiaConnecticutIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyMaineManitobaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNova ScotiaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareRhode I.
Native distribution of Liparis loeselii, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arkansas ARK
British Columbia BRC
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Carolina NCA
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
Washington WAS
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Kazakhstan KAZ
Sakhalin SAK
West Siberia WSB

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 230 in flower of 405 examined

Proportion of examined Liparis loeselii in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 0 4 too few examined
Feb 0 0 too few examined
Mar 0 2 too few examined
Apr 0 4 too few examined
May 15 21 71% 50% to 86%
Jun 155 168 92% 87% to 95%
Jul 55 98 56% 46% to 66%
Aug 5 75 7% 3% to 15%
Sep 0 23 0% 0% to 14%
Oct 0 6 0% 0% to 39%
Nov 0 4 too few examined
Dec 0 0 too few examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Liparis loeselii observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 230 of 405 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,999 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -19.0 °C -9.1 °C 1.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.4 °C 24.4 °C 28.6 °C
Annual rainfall 562 mm 942 mm 1,490 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 59 mm 176 mm 292 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,999 research-grade observations of Liparis loeselii that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 28 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.

  • Anistylis lutea Raf.
  • Cymbidium loeselii Sw.
  • Cymbidium loeselii (L.) Sw.
  • Leptorchis loeselii MacMill.
  • Leptorkis loeselii (L.) MacMill.
  • Liparis bifolia St.-Lag.
  • Liparis correana (W.P.C.Barton) Spreng.
  • Liparis loeselii f. lutosa (Clairv.) Soó
  • Liparis loeselii f. ovata (Ridd. ex Godfery) Soó
  • Liparis loeselii f. squamigera Zapał.
  • Liparis loeselii var. cracoviensis Zapał.
  • Liparis loeselii var. lutosa Clairv.
  • Liparis loeselii var. ovata Ridd. ex Godfery
  • Liparis sachalinensis Nakai
  • Malaxis correana W.P.C.Barton
  • Malaxis correanaa Bart.
  • Malaxis loeselii (L.) Sw.
  • Malaxis longifolia W.P.C.Barton
  • Mesoptera loeselii (L.) Raf.
  • Ophrys loeselii L.
  • Ophrys pulchella Salisb.
  • Ophrys trigona Gilib.
  • Orchis loeselii (L.) MacMill.
  • Paliris loeselii (L.) Dumort.

and 4 more.

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.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

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