orange-fringed orchid

Also known as Yellow Fringed Orchid, Yellow Fringed Orchis, Orange Fringed Orchis

Orange-fringed orchids produce brilliant clusters of fiery orange blossoms, each featuring a lower lip deeply dissected into delicate fringe. These showy perennials rely on large butterflies, particularly swallowtails, whose long proboscises reach the deep nectar spurs while transferring pollen on their eyes. Thriving in open, fire-maintained bogs and wet pine savannas, they depend on periodic fires to clear competing woody brush.