Habenaria laevigata flower

The genus of Habenaria, the bog orchids or ghost orchids, constitutes one of about 800 genera in the large Orchidaceae family. The Habenaria species are terrestrial perennials. Their flowers are characteristically green with some white and yellow colouring showing on flowers of some species. 

Habenaria laevigata grows green, sparsely flowered spikes, much space taken by the large erect bracts. The column of an orchid contains both the male and female flower parts. The pollen is housed at the tip of this column, covered by the anther cap. The exposed female flower part, the stigma, is covered in a sticky, sugary substance which attaches pollen brought into contact with it. This happens through the movements of a visiting pollinator, such as an insect that has unwittingly acquired pollen deposits on its body from visiting other flowers of the same species earlier while in search of food.

Once viable pollen of the right, i.e. the same species has arrived on the stigma, the pollen grains extend small tubes, growing down in the column of the flower until the ovary is reached. Here the eggs are fertilised by the pollen and seeds grow (www.merklesorchids.com).