Large Purple Fringed Orchid

Large purple fringed orchid, Platanthera grandiflora
Photographs by R. Harrison Wiegand

This beautiful orchid grows in a natural area that the City of Frederick has agreed to watch over through a voluntary protection program.

Since it began over 10 years ago, the Maryland Cooperative Natural Areas Registry has worked with participants who, like the City, own land where special habitats and rare species occur. While the nonbinding Registry does not guarantee the survival of these special areas, it has helped to slow the loss of our precious natural heritage.

The large purple fringed orchid depends upon fungi in forest soil to help it absorb nutrients early in life, as do most orchids. This State Threatened plant blooms in shaded woods in mid-summer.