Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Heartleaf Twayblade
Neottia cordata
Orchid family (Orchidaceae)

Everyone seems to like orchids, but most of us are looking for large, showy orchids. Of the several dozen orchids in our area, most, including the most common ones, have tiny flowers. Their beauty is appreciated when examined carefully. Diminutive Heartleaf Twayblade is usually found under spruce and firs, often in the company of other small orchids and pyrolas. Where you find one Twayblade, you will usually find a number of them.

Linnaeus first named this species and it has undergone several name changes since then. According to "Orchids of Britain and Europe" "recent molecular studies have suggested that the Twayblades... are closely related [to the Neottia].... The plant's root system consists of a short with many roots in a mass similar to a bird's nest."

"Neottia" is Greek for "bird's nest." The two opposite heart-shaped leaves give rise to the most common name and to part of the scientific specific epithet: "cord" is Latin for "heart."


©2014 Steve Sullivan, Yan Soucie

Description

Plants with rootstocks. Stems to 8" tall (usually about 4"), slender, or slightly hairy. Leaves 2, about 3/4 to 1+" wide, to round, horizontal. slender, laxly to densely flowered, 1/4" long. Flowers small, purple or green-yellow, on very short . Lip of flower divided into two with a small tooth on each side near the base. a .

Field Marks

Opposite heart shaped horizontal leaves topped by very inconspicuous usually green flowers.

© Al Schneider

A raceme is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along its axis.

pedicel -- The stem of a single flower.

lobe -- A rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ).

capsule -- a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. In most cases the capsule splits apart to release seeds.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

linear-lanceolate -- Elongate and exceedingly narrow with the sides more or less straight but gradually becomming broader near the base.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

cordate -- heart-shaped.
subcordate -- somewhat heart-shaped.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

rhizome -- root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground.