Spiranthes ochroleuca(Rydb.) Rydb.

Yellow nodding lady's tressesyellow nodding lady's tresses

WFO wfo-0000313338 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Spiranthes ochroleuca, photographed by Brian Finzel
fig. a Brian Finzel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-09-11 / obs. 172998460
Spiranthes ochroleuca, photographed by Mary E. Macaulay, P.Eng.
fig. b Mary E. Macaulay, P.Eng., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154251066
Spiranthes ochroleuca, photographed by Elias
fig. c Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 98602239
Spiranthes ochroleuca, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. d Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 96685932
Spiranthes ochroleuca, photographed by Laura J. Costello
fig. e Laura J. Costello, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 96342811
Spiranthes ochroleuca, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. f Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 95111407
Spiranthes ochroleuca, photographed by Daniel McClosky
fig. g Daniel McClosky, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 53004381
Spiranthes ochroleuca, photographed by Christopher Zacharias
fig. h Christopher Zacharias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 25011006

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 23 botanical countries

Regions where Spiranthes ochroleuca is native: Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Rhode I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia ConnecticutIndianaKentuckyMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNova ScotiaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.South CarolinaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest Virginia Rhode I.
Native distribution of Spiranthes ochroleuca, 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
Connecticut CNT NORTHERN AMERICA
Indiana INI
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

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 125 in flower of 128 examined

Peak flowering in Oct. Each bar is the share of Spiranthes ochroleuca 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. 125 of 128 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 9 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 9 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 ochroleuca Rydb.
  • Ibidium cernuum var. ochroleucum (Rydb.) House
  • Ibidium ochroleucum (Rydb.) House
  • Spiranthes ochroleuca f. foliobracteata P.M.Br.
  • Spiranthes steigeri Correll
  • Triorchis cernuus var. ochroleucus (Rydb.) Farw.
  • Triorchis ochroleucus (Rydb.) Nieuwl.
  • Triorchos cernuus var. ochroleucus (Rydb.) Farw.
  • Triorchos ochroleucus (Rydb.) 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.