Satyrium humile flowers and buds

The flowers of Satyrium humile are borne in a dense spike. The pointed bract found below each open flower is sharply deflexed, while still protectively erect below the buds that wait to open higher up. Bracts on the plant in picture are pale pinkish brown, tinged with green. Sparse dark veins are visible upon them. These bracts have tiny hair fringes along their margins.

S. humile flowers are pale cream, tinged with green, pink or a brownish colour. The petals and sepals are fused to each other at the base and to the lip, forming a tube. Two spurs grow at the back of the lip, the upper (or central) petal that forms a rounded hood over the inner flower parts. These thin, cylindrical lip spurs become from 1,2 cm to 2,6 cm long. They are white with yellow-green tips on the plant seen here.

Flowering happens in spring (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Manning, 2007).