IOSPE PHOTOS

Spiranthes vernalis Engelm. & A.Gray 1845

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Plant in situ northern Florida

Closer View of flowers in situ northern Florida

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Drawing by © Carl Luer

to LATEto EARLY

Common Name or Meaning The Spring-Blooming Spiranthes - The Spring Ladies Tresses Orchid

Flower Size .22 to .35" [6 to 9 mm]

Found in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and south to Mexico and Guatemala as well as the Bahamas at elevations up to 2000 meters as a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial orchid with several, tuberous roots giving rise to basal then up the stem, usually ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, often strongly keeled to semiterete leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a terminal, peduncle 7 to 36" [17.5 to 90 cm] long, slender to stout, pubescent above, rachis 1.2 to 6" [3 to 15 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence with more or less imbricate, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, as long as to shorter than the flowers floral bracts carrying usually fragrant flowers that spiral around the rachis .

Synonyms Gyrostachys ensifolia (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Gyrostachys linearis Rydb. 1901; Gyrostachys praecox (Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.) Kuntze 1891; Gyrostachys reverchonii Small 1898; Grostachys vernalis (Engelm. & A.Gray) Kuntze 1891; Gyrostachys xyridifolia Small 1903; Ibidium vernale (Engelm. & A. Gray) House 1905; Ophrys aestivalis Michx. 1803; Spiranthes ensifolia Rchb.f. 1856; Spiranthes graminea var. praecox Britton, Sterns & Poggenb. 1888; Spiranthes reverchonii (Small) K.Schum. 898; Triorchis linearis (Rydb.) Nieuwl. 1913; Triorchis vernalis (Engelm. & A.Gray) House 1920; Triorchis xyridifolius (Small) Britton 1918

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 157 Michx. 1803 as Ophrys aestivalis nom. illeg.

* Boston J. Nat. Hist. 5: 236 Engelm. & A.Gray 1845

Bonplandia (Hannover) 4: 221 Rchb.f 1856 as Spiranthes ensifolia

Prelim. Cat.: 52 Sterns & Poggenb. 1888 as Spiranthes graminea var. praecox

Just's Bot. Jahresber. 26(1): 339 K Schum. 1898 as Spiranthes reverchonii

Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 664 Kuntze 1891 as Gyrostachys vernalis

Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 664 Kuntze 1891 as Gyrostachys ensifolia

Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 664 Kuntze 1891 as Gyrostachys praecox

Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 25: 610 Small 1898 as Gyrostachys reverchonii

Man. Fl. N. States: 300 Rybd. 1901 as Gyrostachys linearis

Fl. S.E. U.S.: 318 Small 1903 as Gyrostachys xyridifolia