Spiranthes torta(Thunb.) Garay & H.R.Sweet

Southern lady's tressessouthern lady's tresses

WFO wfo-0000313478 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Spiranthes torta, photographed by Ben Machado
fig. a Ben Machado, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-04-24 / obs. 40290133
Spiranthes torta, photographed by Kurt Miller
fig. b Kurt Miller, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 179826073
Spiranthes torta, photographed by Ben Machado
fig. c Ben Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 40290149
Spiranthes torta, photographed by tonyblake
fig. d tonyblake, CC0 1.0 / obs. 112284166
Spiranthes torta, photographed by Kurt Miller
fig. e Kurt Miller, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 179826084
Spiranthes torta, photographed by tonyblake
fig. f tonyblake, CC0 1.0 / obs. 112283920
Spiranthes torta, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. g Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43834943
Spiranthes torta, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. h Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43834954

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 19 botanical countries

Regions where Spiranthes torta is native: Florida, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is. FloridaMexico GulfMexico SoutheastBelizeCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicFrench GuianaGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPuerto RicoTrinidad-Tobago BahamasBermudaLeeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Spiranthes torta, 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
Bahamas BAH SOUTHERN AMERICA
Belize BLZ
Bermuda BER
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Puerto Rico PUE
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Windward Is. WIN
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Southeast MXT

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.

Also published as 20 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 apiculata (Lindl.) Kuntze
  • Ibidium quinquelobatum (Poir.) Acuña
  • Ibidium tortile (Sw.) House
  • Ibidium tortilis (Sw.) House
  • Ibidium xyridifolium Small
  • Neottia quadridentata Willd.
  • Neottia tortilis Sw.
  • Ophrys peruviana Aubl.
  • Ophrys quinquelobata Poir.
  • Ophrys torta Thunb.
  • Satyrium spirale Sw.
  • Spiranthes amesiana Schltr.
  • Spiranthes apiculata Lindl.
  • Spiranthes laxiflora Raf.
  • Spiranthes quadridentata (Willd.) Lindl.
  • Spiranthes quinquelobata (Poir.) Urb.
  • Spiranthes swartzii E.H.L.Krause
  • Spiranthes tortilis (Sw.) Rich.
  • Triorchis spiralis (Sw.) House
  • Triorchos spiralis (Sw.) House

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.