IOSPE PHOTOS

Spiranthes lacera (Raf.) Raf. 1833

Photo by Timothy Choltco © plant and flowers in situ in Center County PA.

Drawing of S gracilis

S gracilis

Drawing/Photo by Carl Luer

THROUGH

Common Name The Torn Spiranthes - Northern Slender Ladies Tresses

Flower Size 1/8" [3mm]

Found in the Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward I. provinces of Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode I., New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, south Caro0lina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas on road shoulders as well as in shady woods as a miniature to medium sized [inflorescence only], cold growing terrestrial orchid with a bundle of fleshy, fusiform roots giving rise to a rosette of several, oval, dark green, veined leaves that arise in late fall or early spring and are very shortlived as they are often withered by flowering time which occurs in late spring in the south to fall in the north on an erect, terminal, slender, green, 6 to 20" [15 to 50 cm] long, many [40] flowered inflorescence with the faintly fragrant flowers either secund or spiralling around the scape.

Synonyms Gyrostachys gracilis (Bigelow) Kuntze 1891; Ibidium gracile (Bigelow) House 1905; Neottia gracilis Bigelow 1840; *Neottia lacera Raf. 1818; Neottia tortilis Pursh 1813; Spiranthes gracilis (Bigelow) Beck 1833; Spiranthes lacera var. gracilis (Bigelow) Luer 1975; Triorchis gracilis (Bigelow) Nieuwl. 1913

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 589 Pursh 1813 as Neottia tortilis nom. illeg.

Amer. Monthly Mag. & Crit. Rev. 2: 206 Raf 1818

* Herb. Raf.: 44 Raf 1833 as Neottia lacera

Bot. North. Middle States: 343 L C Beck 1833 as Spiranthes gracilis

Fl. Boston., ed. 3: 345 Bigelow 1840 as Neottia gracilis

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

Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 32: 381 House 1905 as Ibidium gracile

Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 1 Ames 1905 as S gracilis;

Amer. Midl. Naturalist 3: 123 Niewul. 1913 as Triorchis gracilis

Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Spiranthes gracilis;

Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as S gracilis;