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Calopogon tuberosus (L.)Britton et al. var. tuberosus
Tuberous Grasspink
Common Grasspink
Florida native
A frequent terrestrial orchid of marshes, swamps, bogs, marl prairies and wet flatwoods throughout much of Florida, although becoming less frequent to the south. The range extends throughout the eastern United States west to Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota and into Canada from Manitoba to Newfoundland.
The flowers typically vary from pale to deep pink in color with a golden crest on the lip. Occasionally plants can be found with white flowers and are called color form albiflorus. As with other grasspinks, the lip is on the upper side of the flower, differentiating the Calopogon genus from other similarly shaped orchids that have the lip on the bottom. Flowering can occur over an extended period from March to August, with only a few flowers open at a time. The plants grow from 25-75 cm (10-30 in.) tall with one to five slender ribbed leaves less than the height of the flowers.
This variety, or subspecies, does not occur in Miami-Dade or Monroe Counties, where it is replaced by C. tuberosus simpsonii.
Calopogon tuberosus is a member of the Orchidaceae - Orchid family.
Other species of the Calopogon genus in the Wild Florida Photo database:
Calopogon multiflorus - MANYFLOWERED GRASSPINK
Calopogon pallidus - PALE GRASS-PINK
Calopogon tuberosus var. simpsonii - SIMPSON'S GRASSPINK
Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species
iNaturalist profile for this species
USDA Plant Profile for this species
Date record last modified: Dec 27, 2024
