Spiranthes tuberosa Raf. 1833 Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Drawing

Drawing of S grayii by © Carl Luer

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Tuber Spiranthes - In USA The Little Ladies' Tresses

Flower Size 1" [1 cm] long

Found in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Connetticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas in dry fields, cemetaries and roadsides in dry sand soil as a mini-miniature to small sized, cold growing terrestrial with a solitary oblong to spindle-shaped tuber giving ris eto 2 to 4, ovate, dark green, petiolate base leaves that are not present at blooming occuring in the late spring and early summer on a terminal, erect, peduncle 4 to 12" [10 to 30 cm] long, provided with a few small, deciduous sheathoing bracts, rachis .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long, glabrous, single ranked, somewhat spiraled or secund, 10 to 35 flowered inflorescence with green, ovate, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying fragrant flowers

":Easily recoognized at a glance since it is a snow-white, pituary dwarf of all the Spiranthes. The tiny column of white, tubular flowers is spiraled on a stem thin as fine wire and is titally glabrous." Luer 1075

Synonyms Gyrostachys grayi Britton 1907; Spiranthes grayi Ames 1904; Spiranthes simplex A.Gray 1867; Spiranthes tuberosa var. grayi (Ames) Fernald 1946; Triorchis grayi (Ames) Nieuwl. 1913

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Herb. Raf.: 45 Raf. 1833

Manual, ed. 5: 506 Gray 1867 as Spiranthes simplex nom. illeg.

Rhodora 6: 44 Ames 1904 as Spiranthes grayi

Man. Fl. N. States, ed. 3: 300 Britton 1907 as Gyrostachys grayi

as Triorchis grayi

Rhodora 48: 189 Fernald 1946 as Spiranthes tuberosa var. grayi

The Native Orchids of Florida Luer 1972 as S grayii drawing/photos fide;

The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada Luer 1975 drawing/photos fide;

Schlechteriana Vol 4 No 4 1993;

Wild Orchids of the Northeastern United States PM Brown 1993 drawing/photo fide;

Wild Orchids of the Southeastern United States North of Penninsular Florida PM Brown 2004 drawing/photo fide;

AOS Bulletin Vol 81 #6 2012 photo fide;

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