Platanthera hookeri(Torr.) Lindl.

Hooker's orchid

WFO wfo-1000054112 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Platanthera hookeri, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. a Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / 2020-05-31 / obs. 76234963
Platanthera hookeri, photographed by Todd Boland
fig. b Todd Boland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43886718
Platanthera hookeri, photographed by Ian Manning
fig. c Ian Manning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 27921364
Platanthera hookeri, photographed by Rose Zappa
fig. d Rose Zappa, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10085221
Platanthera hookeri, photographed by agbelliveau
fig. e agbelliveau, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204507859
Platanthera hookeri, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. f Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146784291
Platanthera hookeri, photographed by er-birds
fig. g er-birds, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143845778
Platanthera hookeri, photographed by Mike Zifkin
fig. h Mike Zifkin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46118305

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.

Native range 23 botanical countries

Regions where Platanthera hookeri is native: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Vermont, Wisconsin ConnecticutIllinoisIndianaIowaMaineManitobaMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNewfoundlandNova ScotiaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.QuébecVermontWisconsin Rhode I.
Native distribution of Platanthera hookeri, 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
Connecticut CNT NORTHERN AMERICA
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Vermont VER
Wisconsin WIS

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 455 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -19.1 °C -14.1 °C -9.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.3 °C 23.0 °C 25.5 °C
Annual rainfall 704 mm 930 mm 1,347 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 62 mm 171 mm 285 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 455 research-grade observations of Platanthera hookeri 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.

Also published as 12 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.

  • Habenaria hookeri Torr.
  • Habenaria hookeri var. abbreviata Fernald
  • Habenaria hookeri var. oblongifolia Paine
  • Habenaria hookeriana Lindl.
  • Habenaria oblongifolia (C.N.Paine) G.G.Niles
  • Lysias hookeriana (Lindl.) Rydb.
  • Orchis hookeri Wood
  • Orchis hookeriana (Lindl.) Oakes
  • Platanthera hookeri f. abbreviata (Fernald) P.M.Br.
  • Platanthera hookeri f. oblongifolia (C.N.Paine) P.M.Br.
  • Platanthera hookeri var. abbreviata (Fernald) W.J.Schrenk
  • Platanthera hookeri var. oblongifolia C.N.Paine

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol PLHO3. public domain. 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.