Solitary flowers at the end of a slender stem. Flowers have a pouch-like lower lip, white with red veining. The lower petal measured at 14 mm long and 10 mm wide. Lateral petals and sepals reddish green in colour. The flowers' small size and reddish brown colour blend in to the forest floor, helping to make the plant very difficult to find.

Leaves are alternate, elliptical, with noticeable parallel veining. Leaf highlighted in photos above was 6.5 cm long, and 2.5 cm wide.

Growth habit is erect, stems with downy hairs. Tallest plant we observed was 23 cm tall.

Bloom time begins early to mid June.

Habitat is sandy, jack pine forest.

Very rare, listed as an S1 by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.

Photos taken June 15th, jack pine forest, east central Saskatchewan.

I get preachy here: please don't dig up native orchids to try to grow them in your garden. They are becoming rare in the wild due to loss of habitat and wild harvesting. By all accounts they are also quite difficult to transplant successfully from the wild. If you want to grow them in your garden, there are nurseries who grow native orchids from seed who will sell plants to you.