The White Helleborine

White helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia) is a Eurasian orchid of the genus helleborine (Cephalanthera). She is threatened with extinction in Belgium and the Netherlands is probably already gone.

The plant gets its name from its white flowers and his favorite place.

Synonyms: Cephalanthera ensifolia (Murr) Rich., Cephalanthera xiphophyllum (Ehrh.) Rchb., Cephalanthera Simonkai angustifolia, Cephalanthera pallens (Jundz.) Rich.


Dutch: White helleborine

French: à longues feuilles Cephalanthère, Cephalanthère à feuilles and epee

English: Long-leaved helleborine, Sword-leaved helleborine

German: Langblättriges Waldvögelein, Schwertblättriges Waldvögelein


The botanical name is derived from the Cephalanthera Ancient Greek κεφαλή cephalè = head = ανθηρός anthèros thriving and points out that the anther has a head like. Longifolia comes from the Latin "longus" (long) and 'folium' (leaf), and refers to the long leaves.

It can grow 15-50 cm tall. It is a perennial plant (geofyt) each year from underground tuber is another flower stalk. White helleborine has many leaves and a distinct, close-up losbloemige bloeiaar with ten to twenty flowers. The stem is placed often slightly curved and ribbed.

There is no rosette. The stem leaves are apparently leaves in two rows implanted and oblique-overhanging. They are green, unspotted, long, lanceolate line with clear veins. The lower bracts are leaf-like, the upper shorter than the ovary.

The flowers are fragrant, pure white, to 16 mm. They are usually open. The sepals and sepals are pointed, petals or the petals rather blunt. Lip boat-shaped, only half as long as the sepals, and has a hypochile with a clear yellow or orange spots and five to seven parallel lists. There is no trace.

The flowering period is from May to mid-July.

White helleborine prefers calcareous soils on light shaded places: slope forests, forest edges, thickets seams, old deciduous and coniferous forests, rarely in calcareous dune valleys. In the mountains up to 2000 m.



Source: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wit_bosvogeltje

See also: Sending Flowers, Online Florist