The genus Platanthera spans roughly 100 species worldwide, with 37 native to North America and 16 of those found in North Carolina alone. They grow across a wide range of habitats from mountain bogs to open woodland, most requiring moderate and consistent moisture to thrive. The flowers range from small and sparse to dense and showy, and the relationship between species and their pollinators, typically long-tongued moths and butterflies, is often intricate and specific.

Many Platanthera species are threatened or rare, their populations declining as wetlands are drained, roadsides mowed at the wrong moment, and habitats fragment. Gardeners who can offer a consistently moist woodland or wetland edge have something genuinely worth offering these orchids. They are not easy plants to source or establish, but where conditions are right, and patience is extended, they repay it with flowers that belong to no other genus.