Spring Ladies' Tresses

(Spiranthes vernalis)

 

   

 

Color Photograph: NRCS Plants Database, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Spring Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes vernalis Engelm. and Gray)

Identification: Flowers small, white. Flower with yellow to red pubescence, particularly at the base of the flower. Lower petal hanging, rectangular, and constricted near the apex. Flowers do not arch downward on the stem. Flowers without flower stems and arranged in a single, elongate spiral at the top of the plant. Leaves numerous, grasslike, in a basal cluster. Stem with reduced scalelike bracts. Plant 6 to 22 inches in height.

Distribution: Throughout the eastern United States, but primarily along the Atlantic Coast from New England to Florida and the Gulf Coast to Texas.

Habitat: Spring Ladie's Tresses is found in a variety of habitats.

Flowering period: May to September.

Similar Species: Spring Ladie's Tresses can usually be identified by the reddish pubescense on the flowers, the cluster of elongate, grass like leaves at the base of the plant, and the early flowering period.

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