Western Prairie Fringed Orchid (Platanthera praeclara)

The Western Prairie Fringed Orchid is a tallgrass prairie species native to seven states and the Canadian province of Manitoba. It inhabits wet, low-lying meadows and upland sites primarily in the Missouri River drainage system of the Great Plains Region. Currently listed as a Threatened Species, it is protected by federal and state Endangered Species Acts.

The orchid has as many as 25 creamy white flowers on each stem. The flowers are sweetly fragrant at dusk, when their specific pollinators, Sphinx hawkmoths, are most active.

Once a common wildflower in the Great Plains, it is now one of the rarest in North America. Human encroachment factors including intensive cultivation with its accompanying heavy use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, coupled with intensive grazing or mowing of prairie meadows, urban development and illegal collection, have all contributed to the species' decline. The orchid is now reduced to a few isolated populations scattered widely across its former range.

Research into the protection of existing populations is being carried out under the leadership of the Western Prairie Fringed Orchid Recovery Plan, headed by Nancy Sather, Team Leader, for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Ft. Snelling, Minnesota. Micropropagation research is being conducted at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, Nebraska.