Forty-three species of orchids are known to be native to the Ottawa area. Some of these are very familiar but others are much less well known. Some species are very small and inconspicuous and are easily overlooked, while others are quite uncommon and only occur in one or two specific locations.
Using information on the orchids in the Ottawa/Outaouais area in the 1997 monograph “The Orchids in the Ottawa District: Floristics, Phytogeography, Population Studies and Historical Review” by Joyce M. Reddoch and Allan H. Reddoch, published in The Canadian Field-Naturalist, Volume 111, Number 1, Dave Cooper compiled a listing with pictures of local orchids in 2018.
Joyce Reddoch has recently updated this list. Her paper, “The Diverse Orchids in the Ottawa Area – A Comparison” appears in The Native Orchid Conference Journal Volume 18, Issue 3, 2021. She has graciously shared a reprint of the article.