Family: Orchidaceae, Orchid view all from this family
Description 1 or few stems, leafy near base, with pale green, bilaterally symmetrical flowers in long, slender, open racemes.
Flowers: Sepals 3, each about 1/8" (3 mm) long, broadly lanceolate, with 1 vein; lower 2 sepals spreading to sides and downward; upper 2 petals about as long as sepals, joined to upper sepal, forming a hood; lip petal fleshy, lanceolate, projecting forward, with a backward- or downward-projecting spur at base only 1/16-1/4" (1-5 mm) long.
Leaves: To 10" (25 cm) long, lanceolate.
Height: 8-31" (20-80 cm).
Flower June-August.
Habitat Dry woods, gravelly streambanks, and open slopes.
Range Alaska south and east to Quebec, and south to Baja California, northern Nevada, Utah, Colorado, western South Dakota, and Minnesota; also near Great Lakes.
Discussion The species name comes from Unalaska, an island in the Aleutians. A number of small northern orchids were formerly put in the inclusive genus Habenaria, which has been divided into several smaller genera, including Piperia.
