The green-flowered lanceolate-leafed orchis at Azalea Brook.

July 12. 

White vervain. 

Checkerberry, maybe some days. 

Spikenard, not quite yet. 

The green-flowered lanceolate-leafed orchis at Azalea Brook will soon flower. Either Gymnadenia tridentata or Platanthera flava.

Platanthera clavellata

Circæa alpina (?) there, but nearly eighteen inches high. 

Lycopus Virginicus, not open in shade; probably in a day or two. 

Wood horse-tail very large and handsome there.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 12, 1853

White vervain. See July 12, 1856 (“White vervain.”) See also July 28, 1853 ("Saw lower leaves of the white vervain turned a reddish lake or claret."); August 6, 1853 ("lower leaves of some catnip and a white vervain have turned. "); August 29, 1856 ("An apparent white vervain with bluish flowers, as blue as bluets even or more so.")

The green-flowered lanceolate-leafed orchis : Platanthera clavellata (Small Green Wood Orchid) aka Gymnadeniopsis clavellata, Habenaria clavellata , Gymnadenia tridentata (Green Woodland Orchid, Club-spur Orchid, Little Club Spur Bog Orchid). See August 14, 1856 ("Gymnadenia nearer the brook, how long?") Compare the TUBERCLED ORCHIS June 18, 1854 ("Platanthera flava at the Harrington Bathing - Place, possibly yesterday , — an unimportant yellowish - green spike of flowers."); June 21, 1852 ("The dwarf orchis Platanthera flava (Gray) at the bathing-place in Hubbard's meadow, not remarkable.")

Checkerberry, maybe some days. See July 16, 1856 (“Checkerberry, a day or two”). Note: “checkerberry" is another name for American wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens).See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau: Checkerberry.

July 12. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, July 12

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2021