Epipactis (abbr.: Epcts.) is not exactly the most sexy of all terrestrial orchids. It occurs in Europe, Northern America, Africa and Asia in forests, grasslands and in the middle of cities. A number of interesting hybrids have hit the market in recent years, increasing attention for this genus.
The name Epipactis derives from a classical name used by Theophrastus (circa 350 B.C.) for a plant used to curdle milk. About 25 species found worldwide, mostly in Europe (15 species) and Asia. Two species are found in the U.S. - E. gigantea and E. helleborine. The latter is thought to have arrived in North America from Europe in the 19th century and grows in the northeastern U.S.
Epipactis species are normally grown in the garden, they appear to have a strong relation with their fungus, but this depends strongly from species to species.
Plants don't have a tuber but thick roots that radiate from the shoot.

Epipactis species are typically grown in the garden, some can be started in potculture but will soon move to the backyard as they multiply. Most of them are winterhard down to -15°C and can withstand Summer maxima of 35°C. Hybrids often need protection in winter - normally if one of the parents is Mediterranean. Most species can take full sunlight, even at noon, but this is not required. Conditions that are too shady are reflected in a sparse number of flowers. Epipactis species seem to like a medium that keeps the roots humid and they can take a lot of rain in winter. There are three rules for mixing a soil: neutral pH (5.5 - 7.0), good drainage (max 5% clay) and not too many organic ingredients (max 25%). You can use regular commercial gardenmix compost as a base, add grit/sand/perlite/vermiculite/pumice/gravel for drainage and loam/peat/fen soil/sphagnum/coco peat/oyster shells to adjust the pH. Water with rainwater.
Repot when fully dormant but take care in not braking roots. We normally leave the roots and shoot in a pocket of original soil and plant this in the new medium. You can fertilise the plants, preferable with 10-20% of the advised quantity.

Epipactis gigantea (notes on culture by Nina Rach)
Virtually always found in wet places, commonly known as the "stream orchid," "giant helleborine," "chatterbox," and "false lady's slipper." It's the most common native orchid in California and ranges to west Texas, northern Mexico, and southern Canada. There are usually 10 or more green, ovate-lanceolate leaves per plant, alternating on the stem, each from 5-11 cm wide and up to 25 cm long. There is a variety native to California that has wine-red leaves. In cultivation, the plants usually reach 30-50 cm tall. The foliage is deciduous - dies back in the fall. After the foliage turns brown, the new shoots begin to spread away from the rhizome.
Plants bloom to about 1 meter high, with 12-20 flowers per inflorescence. The flowers are 4 to 4.5 cm across (up to 5.5 cm), and usually face the same direction. Sepals are usually dark green, petals rose with dark veining. The (usually red) lip is deeply three-lobed, hinged in the middle, with yellow lateral lobes. The epichile is elongated and vibrates in slight breezes (hence, the "chatterbox" orchid) and the ovary is straight. Flowers have four pollinia. White flower forms and peloric forms are known. Blooming season is early March to early October; the species blooms in 39 months from seed.
Habitat: Found from sea level to 2600 m, always with a constant source of water at the roots, including wet cliff-faces, salty beaches, road-cuts, mountain bogs, hot springs, and sandbars in streams. The rhizomes are slender.
Culture: Mix: peat moss, sand, perlite, some charcoal, humus. You may also add powdered lime and bonemeal. The colony of plants at Kew Gardens is grown beside a small stream in a rock garden, in peat, loam, and leaf mold compost in partial shade, along with dactylorhizas and Skunk Cabbage. A colony is also growing at the Geneva Botanic Garden in a rock garden (drier and sunnier than Kew) along with Cypripedium reginae. Keep in medium-shade.
Best to repot just as plants are breaking dormancy; however, Carson Whitlow recommends handling plants in the autumn, just before dormancy. Tip of leading growth bud should be level with top of compost.
Keep pot in a saucer or trough of water, in bright light. Can grow outdoors in Houston year-round; might benefit if refrigerated or kept cool in some way over the winter. The plants will not tolerate a hard freeze. Suitable for the Holman and Whitlow artificial bog techniques (see Cribb & Bailes), or moist rock gardens.

Epipactis palustris
The Marsh helleborine likes it a bit wetter than most orchids. Don't let the medium dry out but avoid stagnant water, the soil should be water retentive and rich in lime. Forms dense clumps after a number of years because it multiplies vegetatively and flowers end of April/begin May. Seeds are difficult to germinate in culture, they need to take up water and then by stratified for a period of time. This species is suited for potculture and gardenculture, mostly in the formed of raised beds. Some growers plant them around ponds. They normally triple in number every year when grown in pots. Soil should be alkaline to neutral, acidic soils will not kill the plants but they don't seem to prefer it. Young plants are more sensitive to the pH than adult plants. You can use general garden compost with a generous serving of vermiculite, perlite, sand and grit for drainage. Add crushed oystershell or limestone to increase pH. Mix some Sphagnum moss in the bottom of the pot to serve as a wick. Place in a low saucer of water, the soil should not become sogging wet (use a pot that is high enough). Top of with half a centimeter of grit to prevent the moist soil from attracting insects and to slow down evaporation. Water from the top every now and then to aerate the medium.

Epipactis gigantea
Syrphid fly

• Aphids can attack the inflorescence, spray them off with water. When there are a lot of them the inflorescence or a number of flowers can abort. Epcts. palustris seems to be prone to aphids when air-humidity is too low.
• Rabits (and other rodents?) seem to love the fresh shoots, protect with wire mesh in spring.
• Yellow leaves or small shoots normally indicate a problem with pH or nutrients.

A large population of Epipactis atropurpureum on 40-year-old zinc wastes in Chrzanow, southern Poland, where the soil contained high concentrations of cadmium, lead and zinc, was studied for heavy metal content and mycorrhizal development. Rhizomes of the orchid contained extremely high levels of these heavy metals, and the copper content was five times higher then that found in the soil. Heavy metal contents in rhizomes were 10 times (zinc) to 100 times (lead, cadmium) higher than in the shoots. These results suggested the accumulation and biofiltering of metals within rhizomes. But how? E. atropurpureum almost always has mycorrhizal roots: the fungus penetrates the rhizome forming complex hyphal coils. Most of the toxic elements had accumulated in the fungal coils in the rhizomes: lead, iron, zinc, calcium, sulphur and aluminium were in much higher concentrations in the fungal coils than in the surrounding cells. Mycorrhizal fungi may play an important role in heavy metal sequestration and detoxification, allowing the plant to survive in extremely polluted places. 1)

• The Wild Orchids of California, by Ronald A. Coleman, Cornell University Press (1995), 201 pp.
• Hardy Orchids, by Phillip Cribb and Christopher Bailes, Timber Press (1989), 162 pp.
• The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada, by Carlyle A. Luer, New York Botanical Garden (1975), 361 pp.
• Species-level and population-level patterns of genetic variation in the riparian orchid, Epipactis gigantea Dougl. ex Hook. (Orchidaceae), by Alan Thornhill, Ph.D. dissertation. (1996), submitted to the American Journal of Botany.

Epcts. pallustris is sold occasionally in gardencentres.
Ground-Orchids.de sells a number of hybrids

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Location
Epipactis microphylla													Belgium
Epipactis palustris													U.K.
Epipactis atrorubens													North Wales, Scotland, Ireland
Epipactis purpurata													South-Central and South-East England, U.K
Epipactis helleborine													Wales, Centr. Scotland, England, U.K
Epipactis leptochila													U.K
Epipactis dunensis													Central U.K
Epipactis sancta													Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve, U.K
Epipactis phyllanthes													Central Southern England, U.K

Detailed data: Aggregated observation dates from the GBIF.org network.
A colored month means an observation in habitat or collection date of a herbarium specimen with flower or inflorescence. The number refers to the year of last observation or collection.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Location
Epipactis africana							1984						Uganda
Epipactis atrorubens							1953	1932					Austria
Epipactis atrorubens						2007	1982		1973				France
Epipactis atrorubens							2001	1934					Germany
Epipactis atrorubens							1929						Greece
Epipactis atrorubens							1974	1973					Italy
Epipactis atrorubens						1995							Poland
Epipactis atrorubens							1974						Slovenia
Epipactis atrorubens				1930	1936		1957						Spain
Epipactis atrorubens						2002	1994	1994	1987				Switzerland
Epipactis condensata							1963	1948					Cyprus
Epipactis condensata				1986		1948	1978						Turkey
Epipactis densifolia								1886					Switzerland
Epipactis dunensis							1991						Great Britain
Epipactis gigantea						1935	1951						Afghanistan
Epipactis gigantea						1973	1973						Pakistan
Epipactis gigantea					1934		1902						U.S.A.
Epipactis helleborine								1968					Austria
Epipactis helleborine						1935	2007						France
Epipactis helleborine						1992	1982	1985					Germany
Epipactis helleborine								1930					Great Britain
Epipactis helleborine						1951							Greece
Epipactis helleborine							1983	1983					India
Epipactis helleborine						1977	1974	1974					Iran
Epipactis helleborine							2000	2004					Italy
Epipactis helleborine						1937							Morocco
Epipactis helleborine									1930				Netherlands
Epipactis helleborine							1982	1973					Pakistan
Epipactis helleborine							1957						Spain
Epipactis helleborine						1968	1974	1991	1968				Switzerland
Epipactis helleborine					1982	1982	1989	1972					Turkey
Epipactis helleborine subsp. helleborine								1907					Austria
Epipactis helleborine subsp. helleborine							1962	1950					France
Epipactis helleborine subsp. helleborine							1929						Germany
Epipactis helleborine subsp. helleborine						1930	1929						Greece
Epipactis helleborine subsp. helleborine					1936								Spain
Epipactis helleborine subsp. helleborine						1952	1958	1953					Switzerland
Epipactis helleborine subsp. helleborine							1951						Turkey
Epipactis helleborine subsp. orbicularis						1937							Greece
Epipactis helleborine subsp. orbicularis						1981	1998						Switzerland
Epipactis helleborine subsp. tremolsii						2003	2001						Spain
Epipactis kleinii						2003							Spain
Epipactis latifolia							1950						Germany
Epipactis latifolia							1950	1950					Great Britain
Epipactis latifolia					1927								Greece
Epipactis latifolia							1961						India
Epipactis latifolia								1954					Netherlands
Epipactis latifolia							1930	1953					Switzerland
Epipactis latifolia					1952	1950	1959						Turkey
Epipactis leptochila							2007		2006				France
Epipactis leptochila								1950					Great Britain
Epipactis leptochila							1997	1997					Switzerland
Epipactis leptochila subsp. neglecta							2007						France
Epipactis leptochila subsp. neglecta							2002						Great Britain
Epipactis leptochila subsp. neglecta							2000						Switzerland
Epipactis mairei						2004							China
Epipactis microphylla							1904	1890					Austria
Epipactis microphylla						2007	2007		1926				France
Epipactis microphylla							1995						Germany
Epipactis microphylla						1953	1929						Greece
Epipactis microphylla					1975			1972					Iran
Epipactis microphylla						1954							Italy
Epipactis microphylla				1930		2003							Spain
Epipactis microphylla						1995	1978	1975	1944				Switzerland
Epipactis microphylla						1987	1958						Turkey
Epipactis muelleri						1992	2007	2007					France
Epipactis muelleri								1988					Switzerland
Epipactis palustris							1905						Austria
Epipactis palustris						2007	2007	1971	1964				France
Epipactis palustris						2007	1935						Germany
Epipactis palustris							1929	1929					Greece
Epipactis palustris							1954						Hungary
Epipactis palustris						1970	1972						Iran
Epipactis palustris						1989	1997						Italy
Epipactis palustris							1957						Spain
Epipactis palustris						2002	1997	1984	1987				Switzerland
Epipactis palustris							1951						Turkey
Epipactis palustris f. ericetorum							1950						Great Britain
Epipactis persica					1973								Afghanistan
Epipactis persica							2001						Georgia
Epipactis persica							1974	1974					Iran
Epipactis persica							1973	1973					Pakistan
Epipactis persica						1981	1978	1972	1913				Turkey
Epipactis persica subsp. moravica								1997					Germany
Epipactis phyllanthes var. phyllanthes						1958							France
Epipactis phyllanthes var. phyllanthes							1951		1951				Great Britain
Epipactis phyllanthes							2002						Great Britain
Epipactis phyllanthes							1957						Spain
Epipactis placentina							1994						Italy
Epipactis placentina							1999						Switzerland
Epipactis pontica								1989					Austria
Epipactis pontica							1978						Turkey
Epipactis rechingeri							1974	1974					Iran
Epipactis troodi							1963						Cyprus
Epipactis troodi							1959						Turkey
Epipactis veratrifolia					1973	1967	1948						Afghanistan
Epipactis veratrifolia			1994	1992		1949							Cyprus
Epipactis veratrifolia				1949	1975		1974						Iran
Epipactis veratrifolia							1982						Pakistan
Epipactis veratrifolia						1982	1951						Turkey
Epipactis viridiflora subsp. kuenkeleana						1996							Azerbaydzhan
Epipactis viridiflora								1989					Bosnia-Herzegovina
Epipactis viridiflora								1961					Czech Republic
Epipactis viridiflora					1963		2007	2007	2006	2006			France
Epipactis viridiflora								1996					Germany
Epipactis viridiflora							1966	1996	1970				Switzerland

Below is the list of names accepted by the Kew Monocot Checklist. For the complete list - including invalid names - please click here.

World Checklist for Epipactis. With the permission of the Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Published on the Internet
Database integration using Royal Botanical Gardens Kew for reference
Hybrid  Not a Hybrid ... Click on the ---- to get more data