showy orchis

noun

1. a wild orchid, Orchis spectabilis, of eastern North America, having a spike of showy flowers, each with purple, pink, or white sepals and petals united into a galea and a white lip.

Word History and Origins

Origin of showy orchis¹

An Americanism dating back to 1855–60

Example Sentences

These are so modest, one would hardly suspect they belonged to the showy orchis family.

From Project Gutenberg

Then she lifted by the root exquisite showy orchis, lavender-hooded, white-lipped, the tiniest plants she could select and set them around the edge.

From Project Gutenberg

In this showy orchis the nectar often rises an eighth of an inch in the tube, and sufficient pressure to cause a rupture will eject it a foot.

From Project Gutenberg

Quite different from the showy orchis, is this far more chaste showy lady's slipper which Dr. Gray has called "the most beautiful of the genus."

From Project Gutenberg

The males, whose faces are hairy where the females' are bare, and therefore not calculated to retain the sticky pollen masses, are not yet flying when the showy orchis blooms.

From Project Gutenberg