Cephalanthera austiniae
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| Phantom Orchid | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cephalanthera austiniae (Gray) Heller |
Cephalanthera austiniae is a species of orchid known by the common names phantom orchid and snow orchid because the entire plant is white. Native to the western United States and Canada, it is the only species of genus Cephalanthera found outside of Europe and Asia, and the only one entirely dependent on symbiotic mycorrhizae for its nutrition. This mycoheterotrophic orchid has no chlorophyll, so it makes no energy for itself. It is a distinctive plant, rising from the dark, moist forest floor on waxy white stems and bearing orchid blossoms which are white or yellowish with yellow centers. Its leaves, if present, are rudimentary since such structures are not needed for collecting sunlight. The plant is becoming more scarce as its habitat, dense, isolated forest, becomes more rare.
