Habenaria quinqueseta (Michx.) Eaton

Michaux's Orchid; Long Horn False Rein Orchid

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Michaux’s Orchid is a native herbaceous perennial in the Orchid family (Orchidaceae). It is known from only two counties in Alabama (Baldwin and Tuscaloosa). Michaux’s Orchid grows in dry to wet pine savannas, in swamps, and in wet roadside ditches. It is a perennial from thick fleshy roots. The plant is often colonial from new shoots produced along elongate rhizomes. Stems are erect and vary in length from a few inches to over a foot. Leaves are alternate, sessile with the base sheathing the stem, elliptic to oblanceolate in outline, entire, and glabrous. The leaves are reduced in size upwards on the stem. Flowers are produced in a terminal raceme. Individual flowers are greenish or greenish-white in color and subtended by a bract. There are three green sepals and three whitish petals. The two lateral petals are divided and falcate. The lip petal is divided into 3 segments with the middle segment linear and descending. The flowers have a cylindrical spur extending below them. The flowers are pollinated by moths. The fruit is a capsule with many dust-like seed. Michaux’s Orchid is listed as an S1 species in Alabama (typically 5 or fewer occurrences making it especially vulnerable in the state), and Globally as a G4G5 species (imperiled globally because of rarity or demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery).—A. Diamond

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Native FACW (NWPL) S1 (State Rank) G4G5 (Global Rank)

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