Spiranthes laciniata [Small]Ames 1905
Photo by © Prem Subrahmanyam
Photo by © Stephen Jones.
Plants in grass in median of Rest Stop - Florida
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Drawing by © Carl Luer
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Common Name Lace-Lipped Spiral Orchid; LaceLip Ladies Tresses
Found in New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, as a small to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial of grasslands, damp meadows, pinelands and open woodlands as well as in roadside ditches and roadbanks that is often fragrant and flowers on an erect, stout to slender, 8 to 24" [20 to 60 cm] long, terminal, green, many flowered, densely pubescent, spicate inflorescence occuring in the spring in the south and the late summer in the north of it's range and found in wet ground or cypress swamps, marshes or ponds.
It is commonly called the Lace Lip Spiral Orchid as the flowers have a tendency to spiral around the inflorescence. This species is extremely similar to Spiranthes vernalis and is only different in the blunt, rounded or ball tipped downy hairs on the inflorescence which is only visible with magnification.
Synonyms *Gyrostachys laciniata Small 1938; Ibidium laciniatum (Small) House 1906; Triorchis lacinata [Sm.] House 1920
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Fl. S.E. U.S.: 318 Small 1903 as Gyrostachys laciniata
* Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 1: 120 Ames 1905;
Muhlenbergia 1: 128 House 1906 as Ibidium laciniatum
Amer. Midl. Naturalist 6: 206 House 1920 as Triorchis lacinata
The Native Orchids of Florida: 96 Luer 1972 drawing/photos fide;
The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada Luer 1975 drawing/photos fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 1 1984 photo fide;
Fairchild Tropical Garden Bulletin Vol 47 No 2 1992 photo;
AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #8 2011 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 84 #3 2015 photo fide;
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