Eastern prairie fringed-orchid COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 13

Summary of Status Report

Eastern Prairie Fringed-orchid is a perennial species requiring from 3-7 years to grow from seed to flowering size. It is a plant of varied habitats including fens, bogs, mesic prairies and successional fields. It was formerly widespread in the northeastern United States, centred south of the Great Lakes. In Canada it occurs only in southern Ontario. Recent surveys for the species indicate that there are about 20 extant populations in Ontario out of a total of 34 known historically. Most populations are small with some, such as the population at site 31, having declined dramatically from up to 1500 plants in the late 1960s to a handful in 2000. The current total number of plants recorded for only a portion of the 20 populations surveyed is estimated to be just over 1000 flowering shoots.  Limiting factors include loss of habitat and associated pollinators, successional changes, human impacts on water table levels, hybridization with other species of orchids and grazing by the increased number of deer. The orchid is a globally rare species.

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