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Description: The Western prairie fringed orchid is a single-stemmed plant with up to 25 white showy flowers. It may grow to nearly four feet tall, but is generally shorter. The white flowers have lower petals which are deeply three-lobed and fringed. Flowers may be up to one and one-half inches in the Western prairie fringed orchid.

Habitat and Habits: The Western prairie fringed orchid occurs in moist to wet native prairie areas. These include prairie remnants along roads and railroad rights-of-way. This orchid blooms from early June to late July in Iowa. A species of sphinx moth or hawk moth is the pollinator for the orchid. At dusk, the flower releases a scent which attracts the insect. The moth sips nectar from the flower and in the process, pollen may be deposited on the moth. The moth flies to another flower to gather more nectar and pollinates that flower with pollen from previously visited flowers. On small prairie remnants or in small populations of this orchid, pollination appears to be rare. There may not be enough flowering orchids to attract pollinators, or the prairie may be too small to harbor a good population of the appropriate insects. Thus, in some years few or no seeds are produced. In the short term, this may not be a problem as the orchid is a long-lived perennial. However, in the long term, the orchid population must reproduce by seed in order to insure genetic diversity and to colonize new sites. Vegetative reproduction (reproducing without seed) does occur, but is probably infrequent and insufficient to maintain a population over a long period of time.

Photographer:Bill Watson

Distribution: The Western prairie fringed orchid is restricted to the Midwest, the Great Plains and one Canadian province. In Iowa, it currently occurs on 33 sites in 18 counties. Thirteen of the populations are on land managed by conservation agencies -- eight owned by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, two by The Nature Conservancy/Iowa Chapter, and three by county conservation boards.

Conservation Efforts: Populations should be protected on private lands by working with landowners and testing management techniques such as the time and frequency of prescribed burns on public lands.

Reasons For Listing: The conversion of prairie for agriculture, roads and other developments has left less than one percent of the original prairie in Iowa. This loss of suitable habitat is the reason for the major population decline of the Western prairie fringed orchid in Iowa.