NameThatPlant.net: Spiranthes sylvatica

Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Monocots: Asparagales

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Spiranthes sylvatica FAMILY Orchidaceae Go to FSUS key

Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.

Learn more about Spiranthes from the Vascular Plants of North Carolina.

Compared to Spiranthes praecox, Spiranthes sylvatica has a laxer spiral (as few as 3-4 flowers per turn), much longer lip (recurved), relatively spreading sepals (oriented downward), larger flowers, with greenish veins on sepals and both lips, and the flowers overall with a more yellowish-green color (vs. bright white), per Weakley's Flora (2022)

INCLUDED WITHIN PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Spiranthes praecox FAMILY Orchidaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)

Spiranthes sylvatica

INCLUDED WITHIN Flora of North America north of Mexico, vol. 26 (2002)

Spiranthes praecox

INCLUDED WITHIN VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 049-12-006?:

Spiranthes praecox FAMILY Orchidaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)

Ibidium praecox

COMMON NAME:
Woodland Ladies'-tresses, Pale Green Ladies'-tresses

To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.

image of Spiranthes sylvatica, Woodland Ladies'-tresses, Pale Green Ladies'-tresses

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_ibpr_001_lvd

Jim Fowler jafssylvatica_3

April Levy County FL

Jim Fowler jafssylvatica_4

April Levy County FL

Flowers a creamy green (vs. the bright white of S. praecox), per Wild Orchids of South Carolina: A Popular Natural History (Fowler, 2005).

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Spiranthes sylvatica FAMILY Orchidaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Spiranthes praecox FAMILY Orchidaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)
Spiranthes sylvatica

INCLUDED WITHIN Flora of North America north of Mexico, vol. 26
Spiranthes praecox

INCLUDED WITHIN VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 049-12-006?:
Spiranthes praecox FAMILY Orchidaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Ibidium praecox

2157

Forb
Perennial

Habitat: Pine-oak forests and woodlands, live oak hammocks, interdune swales, rich dry forests, other woodlands, per Weakley's Flora

Native to the Carolinas & Georgia

Rare

map
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.

LEAVES:
Simple
Mostly basal (when present)

FLOWER:
Spring/Summer
White (marked with green)
Bilaterally symmetrical
3 sepals, two lateral and one dorsal
3 petals, the two lateral similar and a third (the lip) enlarged
stamens and pistil fused together into a column
Inferior ovary
Bisexual

FRUIT:
Spring/Summer
Capsule

TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!

Wild Orchids of South Carolina: A Popular Natural History (Fowler, 2005) p208

"Common names should be written in lower case unless part of the name is proper and then the first letter of only the proper term is capitalized. For example, sugar maple would be written with lower case letters while Japanese maple would be written with the capital J. This is the accepted method for writing common names in scientific circles and should be familiar to the student. In this text, and many others, common names are written with capital first letters. This was done to set the name off from the rest of the sentence and make it more evident to the reader. Actually in modern horticultural writings the capitalized common name predominates." — Michael Dirr, Manual of Woody Landscape Plants

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