Spiranthes porrifolia |
Spiranthes eatonii |
|
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creamy ladies' tresses, creamy lady's tresses, western ladies'-tresses |
Eaton's lady's tresses |
|
Habit | Plants 15–60 cm. | Plants 15–55 cm. |
Roots | few–several, spreading to descending, tuberous, mostly to 1 cm diam. |
mostly to 1 cm diam., few, stout. |
Leaves | persisting through anthesis or fugaceous, basal, often on proximal portion of stem, ascending, linear to linear-lanceolate, linear-oblanceolate, oblanceolate or elliptic, to 34 × 3.5 cm. |
withering at anthesis, 3–7, basal, spreading, oblanceolate, 5.5 × 0.75–1 cm. |
Spikes | usually very tightly spiraled, rarely loosely spiraled, usually 3 flowers per cycle of spiral; rachis glabrous to sparsely pubescent, trichomes less (usually much less) than 0.18 mm, capitate glands often sessile. |
secund to tightly spiraled, 8–10 flowers per cycle of spiral; rachis pubescent, some trichomes capitate, glands obviously stalked. |
Flowers | ascending, creamy to markedly yellowish, slenderly tubular; sepals connate at base, 4.6–11 mm, apex reflexed-spreading; petals linear-lanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, apex reflexed-spreading, obtuse to subacute or subemarginate; lip lance-ovate to lanceolate, 4–9.5 × 1.9–4.3 mm, apex recurved less than to scarcely more than apices of sepals and petals, only slightly or not at all dilated, with subapical dense cushion of peg-shaped trichomes on adaxial surface; veins few to several, branches wide-spreading or often parallel; viscidia linear to linear-elliptic; ovary mostly 2–7.5 mm. |
white; sepals green at base, spatulate, 3–4.5 × 1 mm; petals green at base, linear to lance-oblong, 3–4.5 × 1 mm, apex acute to obtuse; lip with distinct green central portion, ovate to oblong, 3–5 × 2–3 mm, narrowed to rounded apex; veins several, divergent; basal calli pointed outward, thickened, mostly to 1 mm; viscidium linear-lanceolate; ovary mostly 3 mm. |
Seeds | monoembryonic. |
monoembryonic. |
2n | = 44 [66]. |
|
Spiranthes porrifolia |
Spiranthes eatonii |
|
Phenology | Flowering May–Aug. | Flowering Feb–May. |
Habitat | Moist to wet riparian meadows, stream banks, marshes, fens, seeping banks | Se coastal plain and Gulf Coast in dry to moist fields, pine flatwoods, wood roads, cemeteries |
Elevation | 100–2600 m (300–8500 ft) | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; ID; NV; OR; WA
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AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; VA
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Discussion | Spiranthes eatonii is easily confused with S. lacera var. lacera (and in herbarium specimens with S. floridana, S. brevilabris, S. tuberosa, and S. torta), except that it flowers in the winter and spring. It is the only white-flowered, basal-leaved Spiranthes within its range to bloom at that time of year. The narrow, oblanceolate leaves are distinctive within this group. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 26. | FNA vol. 26, p. 537. |
Parent taxa | Orchidaceae > subfam. Orchidoideae > tribe Cranichideae > subtribe Spiranthinae > Spiranthes | Orchidaceae > subfam. Orchidoideae > tribe Cranichideae > subtribe Spiranthinae > Spiranthes |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. romanzoffiana var. porrifolia | |
Name authority | Lindley: Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl., 467. (1840) | Ames ex P. M. Brown: N. Amer. Native Orchid J. 5: 9, figs. on pp 14, 15. (1999) |
Web links |