Listera ovata

If you chance to notice this unbtrusive herb with green -and -yellow flowers on your walk through a forest ,it certainly won't occur to you that you have just encountered a genuine orchid .And yet ,that is exactly the case! An interesting quality of this plain looking plant is the extremely long time it takes for its seedling to reach maturity -between the germination and the first flowering there is oftern a lapse of up to 15 years ! Luckily ,the species propogates well also vegetatively -by growing adventive buds on its long roots . In spite of its slow development in the first few years ,Listera ovata is very well prepared for life : it is one of the few members of the whole family Orchidaceae that is completely independent on the presence of symbiotic fungi in its tissues once it reaches maturity . This is why it is also highly adaptive ecologically .

The trailing underground rhizome of the plant gives rise to an up -to -24-in /60-cm soft stem with a hairy top . About a third of the way up from the bottom of it ,it grows 2 almost opposite dark-green ,broad ,egg-shaped leaves. A sparse raceme inflorescence bears 20 -80 yellow -and -green flowers with forward -bent tepals and a notably elongated two -lobed lip. L. ovata can be spotted in somewhat shady meadows with various leavels of dampness. Flowering takes place between May and July .The overall geographical area of the species is very large -it includes almost the entire temperate zone of Eurasia .