Spiranthes lucida (H.H.Eaton) Ames 1908

Photo by © W.H. Wagner and The University of Michigan Herbarium Website

LATER EARLY

Common Name The Shining Spiranthes - in USA The Shining Ladies Tresses

Flower Size .2 to .4" [.5 to 1 cm]

Found in southeastern Canada and eastern US north of Virginia and east of Nebraska in limy pond shores, riverbanks, meadows, road banks and seeps as a mini-miniature to small sized, cold growing terrestrial with a glabrous below becoming pubescent above stem carrying a basal rosette of 3 to 4, clasping the stem below, green, glossy, elliptic to lanceolate leaves that blooms in the later spring and early summer without its leaves present, on an erect, slender, with a few bracts, to 14" [35 cm] long, to flowered inflorescence with lanceolate floral bracts and carries fragrant flowers.

Synonyms Gyrostachys plantaginea (Raf.) Britton 1896; Ibidium plantagineum House 1905; Neottia aestivalis Oakes ex A.Gray 1867; *Neottia lucida H.H.Eaton 1832; Neottia plantaginea Raf. 1818; Spiranthes aestivalis Oakes 1842; Spiranthes latifolia Torr. ex Lindl. 1840; Spiranthes plantaginea (Raf.) Raf. 1833; Triorchis plantaginea (Raf.) Nieuwl. 1913

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Fascile 2 Ames 1908; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Spiranthes latifolia; 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 photo/drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 66 No 3 1997 photo fide; Wild Orchids of North America north of Mexico PM Brown 2003 photo/drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 84 #3 2015 drawing fide;

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