Western rattlesnake plantain is a native orchid, though most hikers notice its leaves long before its flowers. It grows as a flat rosette of thick, dark green, evergreen leaves marked with white, most boldly along the central vein. The pattern stands out against the brown duff of a shady forest floor in every season.
In mid to late summer a single hairy stalk rises from the rosette and carries a one-sided or spiraling spike of small, greenish-white flowers. Bumble bees are the main pollinators, with sweat bees and hover flies also visiting. Each flower sheds its pollen before it is ready to receive pollen, which makes self-pollination unlikely.
After a rosette blooms it fades and its rhizome tip dies back, but new shoots along the short creeping rhizome carry the plant on, and flowering plants tend to produce more of them. It is most common in mature and old-growth forest. Its shallow rhizomes are easily killed when fire burns through the litter and duff, so it comes back slowly after a burn.
Watch for the striped rosettes beside the trail in cool conifer forest, and look for the flower spikes in summer.
How to identify it
A flat basal rosette of dark green, egg- to lance-shaped leaves about 1 to 4 inches long, mottled with white and usually with a bold white stripe along the midrib. In bloom, a glandular-hairy stalk about 4 to 18 inches tall bears 10 or more small greenish-white flowers along one side or in a loose spiral.
Look-alikes
Other rattlesnake plantains, including the hybrid checkered rattlesnake plantain, can look similar, and the species cross where they grow together. A bold white stripe down the midrib is typical of this species.
Habitat
Shady forest floors in cool, moderately dry to moist conifer and mixed forests, often rooted in duff and decaying leaf litter. In Oregon it occurs from low elevations up to the subalpine on suitable sites, and it is most frequent in mature and old forests.
Sightings in the forest
523 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 28, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →