Listera ovata

Description

Tuberous root system. Woodland, grassy places, marshy ground.

It was one of the orchids described by Charles Darwin in his ‘Fertilisation of Orchids’. In orchids that produce pollen, pollination happens when the insect enters the flower. The insect touches a sticky pad-like gland that is joined to the pollen grains. This gland sticks to the insect’s body, generally head or abdomen and while leaving the flower the insect pulls the pollen grains out of the anther. The pollen grains are attached to the sticky gland by a stalk, the stalk bends, the pollen grains are moved forward and downwards. When the same insect enters another flower of the same species, the pollen grains are in the right position to stick to the stigma of the second flower, thus pollinating it.

Flowers

Many small green or greenish-yellow flowers on a long stalk. The sepals and petals form a hood, the lip is split into two lobes, no spur.

Leaves

Elliptic oval leaf. Oval, broad, ribbed, almost opposite, just 2 leaves.

Fruits Seeds

Capsule: egg-shaped, seeds tiny like dust.