Spiranthes lacera(Raf.) Raf.

Slender ladies'-tressesnorthern slender lady's tresses

WFO wfo-0000313251 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Spiranthes lacera, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. a Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-05 / obs. 155487037
Spiranthes lacera, photographed by Elias
fig. b Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150684724
Spiranthes lacera, photographed by Jake McCumber
fig. c Jake McCumber, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149244759
Spiranthes lacera, photographed by Renee MacQuarrie
fig. d Renee MacQuarrie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 147641598
Spiranthes lacera, photographed by Mary E. Macaulay, P.Eng.
fig. e Mary E. Macaulay, P.Eng., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146442330
Spiranthes lacera, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. f Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145206325
Spiranthes lacera, photographed by yajapin
fig. g yajapin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 96149383
Spiranthes lacera, photographed by Morgan Hay
fig. h Morgan Hay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58653514

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 43 botanical countries

Regions where Spiranthes lacera is native: Alabama, Alberta, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaAlbertaArkansasConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineManitobaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNova ScotiaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Spiranthes lacera, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Saskatchewan SAS
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 430 in flower of 445 examined

Peak flowering in Oct. Each bar is the share of Spiranthes lacera observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 430 of 445 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 10 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Gyrostachys gracilis (Bigelow) Kuntze
  • Ibidium gracile (Bigelow) House
  • Ibidium gracile House
  • Neottia gracilis Bigelow
  • Neottia lacera Raf.
  • Neottia tortilis Pursh
  • Spiranthes gracilis (Bigelow) L.C.Beck
  • Spiranthes gracilis (Bigelow) Beck
  • Triorchis gracilis (Bigelow) Nieuwl.
  • Triorchos gracilis (Bigelow) Nieuwl.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.