White turtlehead (Chelone glabra), also known as balmony, codhead, and snakehead, is a tall, rangy perennial native to wet habitats throughout Appalachia. Despite its widespread distribution and familiarity, I’m always amused whenever I come across the plant’s tubular, doubled-lipped flowers; they’re vaguely reminiscent of baby turtles, with the upper and lower lips forming the carapace and plastron, respectively, and the middle lobe of the lower lip forming the turtle’s head. The pink-tinged flowers bloom, bottom to top, from a spike-like raceme at the end of the main stem. Flowers appear persistently from mid summer through the first frost of autumn. The plant’s lustrous green leaves are richly-textured, sharply-toothed, and arranged in opposite pairs on the stem. White turtlehead attracts butterflies and hummingbirds and is the host plant for the larvae of the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas phaeton). The photos above were taken along the Middle Valley Trail in the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
