Calopogon tuberosus - Pink Bog Orchid
Scientific Name: Calopogon sp. (C. pulchellus or C. tuberosus)
Common Name: Pink Bog Orchid
Description: Herbaceous, perennial bog plant; bright pink, butterfly-shaped flowers (about 1½ inches across) form on 12-inch stems in late spring to early summer; several flowers per stem
Size: Flowering stem to 12-inches; entire plant dies down and goes dormant in the fall
Cultural Information: Prefers full sun to light shade and deep, moist (not flooded) soil, which has been amended with one-part sand to two-parts peat moss. Plant the oval corms 1 to 2 inches deep.
USDA Zones: 4 through 8
Historical Notes: This showy North American orchid is native to acid-bogs and moist prairies in Wisconsin, but is easy to grow in many regions of the United States with proper care. The genus Calopogon derives from the Greek terms kalos and pogon, meaning "beautiful beard," in reference to the cluster of hairs that adorn the lower petal. This species was first discovered in North America in the 1770s. Lady Skipwith mentions Calopogon pulchellus in her late eighteenth century writings.[1] Peter Henderson's reference to Calopogon, in his Henderson's Handbook of Plants and General Horticulture (1890), notes: "Like most of our native Orchids, it improves by cultivation."[2]
- Peggy Cornett, n.d.
Further Sources
References
- ^ Ann Leighton, American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986), 401.
- ^ Peter Henderson, Henderson's Handbook of Plants and General Horticulture (New York: P. Henderson & Co., 1890), 66.