Spiranthes tuberosaRaf.

Little lady's tresses

WFO wfo-0000313488 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Spiranthes tuberosa, photographed by Elias
fig. a Elias, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-21 / obs. 152244460
Spiranthes tuberosa, photographed by Elias
fig. b Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150963252
Spiranthes tuberosa, photographed by Jake McCumber
fig. c Jake McCumber, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149525832
Spiranthes tuberosa, photographed by Clay Gibbons
fig. d Clay Gibbons, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 97195376
Spiranthes tuberosa, photographed by Elias
fig. e Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 90332414
Spiranthes tuberosa, photographed by Gordon C. Snelling
fig. f Gordon C. Snelling, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 9831889
Spiranthes tuberosa, photographed by cwarneke
fig. g cwarneke, CC0 1.0 / obs. 8396366
Spiranthes tuberosa, photographed by Brian Finzel
fig. h Brian Finzel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 179905634

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 29 botanical countries

Regions where Spiranthes tuberosa is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia AlabamaArkansasConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMississippiMissouriNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaWest Virginia DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Spiranthes tuberosa, 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
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Pennsylvania PEN
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
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.

Also published as 7 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 grayi Britton
  • Spiranthes grayi Ames
  • Spiranthes simplex A.Gray
  • Spiranthes tuberosa var. grayi (Ames) Fernald
  • Spiranthes tuberosa var. tuberosa
  • Triorchis grayi (Ames) Nieuwl.
  • Triorchos grayi (Ames) 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.