Native and naturalized plants
Native and naturalized plants of the Carolinas and Georgia, eastern Tennessee and northern Florida

2141
Weakley's Flora ( 4/7/08 ): Orchidaceae
Listera australis

SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS National Database: Orchidaceae
Listera australis

SYNONYMOUS WITH
Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (1968): Orchidaceae
049-04-003
Listera australis

Common Name:
Southern Twayblade

Forb
Perennial

Native to the Carolinas & Georgia
Uncommon (rare in GA, NC, SC)
Documented growing wild in GA NC SC

Look for it in swamps, second terraces in floodplain forests, wet woods under Rhododendron maximum, per Weakley's Flora



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...Wet

Leaves:
Simple

Flower:
Spring/Summer
Reddish-purple
Bisexual
Bilaterally symmetrical

Fruit:
Spring/Summer
Capsule

To learn more about this plant, look it up in a good book!
Atlantic Coastal Plain Wildflowers p231
Wild Orchids of SC: A Popular Natural History p104
Wildflowers of the Carolina Lowcountry p136
Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains p025




You may enjoy reading Orchids of the Francis Marion National Forest by Jim Fowler.

Click picture for larger image.

image of Listera australis, image of Listera australis
Jim Fowler      jaflaustralis_2050315


March
Berkeley County SC
Francis Marion National Forest

 

image of Listera australis, image of Listera australis
Jim Fowler      jaflisteraau_close050315


March
Berkeley County SC
Francis Marion National Forest

 

image of Listera australis, image of Listera australis
Jim Fowler      jafl_australis


March
Berkeley County SC
Francis Marion National Forest

 

image of Listera australis, image of Listera australis
JK Marlow      jkm100313_232


March
Grady County GA
Wolf Creek Preserve

A single pair of sessile ovate leaves on the stem, per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains.

 

"Modern botanical classification groups plants by sexual (reproductive) characteristics, but there are other ways to group plants.... The Chinese divide plants into yin and yang (female and male) as well as by taste and by the elements of wood, fire, earth, water, and metal." — Joyce A. Wardwell, The Herbal Home Remedy Book