"Northern Twayblade" is a suitable name for this cold-loving, two-leaved orchid. The genus Listera is named for Martin Lister, a noted seventeenth century English physician and naturalist. The species name borealis means "northern".

The plant grows to 15 centimetres in height. Two leaves that are nearly opposite appear near the middle of the stem; the loose raceme has up to 15 blue-green flowers. The very striking and relatively large lip of the flower is pale green on the edges and darker green in the centre. Northern Twayblade has small, oval seed pods along the top quarter of a fragile stem. The flowers can appear from early June to mid-July.

The only other orchid that could be mistaken for Northern Twayblade in Manitoba is Auricled Twayblade (Listera auriculata). However, the last reported sighting of Auricled Twayblade was some fifty years ago.

Northern Twayblade is one of the least known of the orchids of Manitoba. This elusive orchid is rarely encountered even by orchid enthusiasts. There are several reasons for this. Northern Twayblade is small and inconspicuous, blending in with other green vegetation. It does not grow in the more populated southern part of Manitoba but, as the name suggests, grows in the sparsely populated boreal forest area of the northern part of the province. Because Northern Twayblade is a short-lived plant, the window of opportunity for sighting it is small.

There are only about six locations where Northern Twayblade is known to grow in Manitoba. The southernmost locations are in the Duck Mountains in the west and near Wallace Lake in the east. We were very fortunate to see many exquisite specimens of Northern Twayblade on our excursion to Churchill in July of this year (see the October newsletter). That alone made the trip worthwhile.