Drawing by © M C Pace

Full ShadeCold EARLIER Fall

Common Name Niklas' Spiranthes [Honors American Karl J. Niklas, Ph.D. (b. 1948), for his many contributions to botany, paleobotany, and evolutionary biology. Throughout his 43 years of elegant scholarship, leadership within the botanical community (e.g. President, Botanical Society of America, 2008-2009), and dedicated teaching as a professor of Plant Biology at Cornell University, Niklas has mentored and inspired a generation of botanists, including M. Pace current]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Arkansas and Oklahoma as a stemless, medium sized, cold growing, deciduous terrestrial with fasciculate, fleshy roots giving rise to 1 to 2, basal, rarely remaining to antithesis and withering shortly thereafter, linewar-lanceoalte to lanceoloate, acuminate, tapering a decurrent below into the base leaves that blooms in the earlier fall on an erect, terminal, peduncle to 16" [40 cm] long, with adpressed, clasping, lanceolate, acute sheathing bracts, rachis 2.4" [6 cm] long, a single row of flowers in a moderately to tightly coiled spiral (appearing as 1-4 "ranks"), moderately to densely pubescent, 20+ flowered inflorescence with moderately to densely pubescent, lanceolate, acuminate, concave around the ovary, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying campanulate, held perpendicular to the inflorescence to moderately nodding, white to pale ivory flowers.

"Spiranthes niklasii is most similar to Spiranthes cernua from which it can be distinguished by a central ridge of small papillae on the adaxial surface of the labellum, more strongly campanulate flowers, and usual preference for a more xeric habitat. It can be distinguished from Spiranthes ovalis by its centrally papillate labellum, flattened lateral sepals (vs. cupped), and upright callosities (vs. strongly incurled). It can be distinguished from both species by its typically fugacious leaves at anthesis." M C Pace 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Syst. Bot. 42: 660 M C Pace 2017 Drawing fide

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------