Epipactis Gigantea

Epipactis gigantea, the giant helleborine or stream orchid, is a hardy terrestrial orchid of western North America. Upright leafy stems rise from spreading rhizomes and carry loose spikes of intricate flowers in green, yellow-brown and pink, each marked by rich red veins and a cup-shaped lower lip. It inhabits springs, stream margins and wet meadows where cool water moves through the soil. In cultivation it can form an impressive colony in moist partial shade, but raising plants from seed is specialist work because germination depends on laboratory culture or a compatible mycorrhizal fungus.