Please, never pick or attempt to transplant 
Orchids (or any other) wild plant. 
Click to purchase plants from legitimate plant nurseries.
Many Orchids are endangered.
Orchid habitat is very specialized.
Orchid pollination is very specialized.
Orchid germination is very specialized.
Admire them in the wild and let them live.

Also see Corallorhiza maculata, Calypso bulbosa, Epipactis gigantea, and Cypripedium calceolus, and White Orchids

Blooming information withheld to protect the Orchids.

Everyone seems to like orchids, but most of us are looking for large, showy orchids. Of about 20 orchids in the San Juans, most, including the eight fairly common ones, have tiny flowers. Their beauty is appreciated when examined carefully.

Diminutive, relatively uncommon Heartleaf Twayblade is usually found under spruce and firs, often in the company of Pyrolas and other small orchids.  Where you find one Twayblade, you will usually find a number of them.

In 1789 the Orchid Family (Orchidaceae) was named by Antoine Jussieu elevating Linnaeus genus name, "Orchis", to the name of the family. Linnaeus used the Greek word "orchis", meaning "testicle", because of the shape of the roots. Robert Brown named the Listera genus, probably in 1813 when he named this species Listera cordata, changing Linnaeus' 1753 name of Ophrys cordata. "Listera" is for the naturalist, Dr. Martin Lister. (More biographical information about Lister.)  

In 1817 Louis Claude Marie Richard (1754-1821) named a new genus for a new species, Neottia nidus-avis.  According to Orchids of Britain and Europe "molecular studies have suggested that the Twayblades (Listera species) although at first sight different in appearance, are closely related [to Neottia] and they have now been included in that genus.  [Neottia] gets its name from the plant's root system that consists of a short rhizome with many roots [in a mass similar to a bird's nest]."  "Neottia" is Greek for "bird's nest".

The two opposite heart-shaped leaves give rise to the common name and to the scientific specific epithet: "cord" is Latin for "heart".

Neottia cordata flowers range from green to yellow/red.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Neottia cordata