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A young plant that I bought from a garden centre. It was raised by Phytesia in the Netherlands (phytesia-orchids.com). I have been keeping it quite wet and it has grown well in the greenhouse through the summer. The North American Orchid Center says: "Spiranthes ochroleuca, commonly called Yellow Ladies' Tresses, has a limited distribution in northeastern Canada and the United States, from Ontario to South Carolina. It produces 3-6 basal and lower stem leaves which usually persist through flowering. It bears an inflorescence of up to 60 small white, yellowish, or greenish-white flowers that are arranged in a spiral. The labellum has crenulate margins and is often colored with yellow at the center. The inflorescence is covered in small hairs. It prefers dry, open habitats and can be found in open woodlands, thickets, dry meadows, fields, and along roadsides. It is known to form a hybrid with S. casei, named S. x borealis." The Vascular Plants of North Carolina says: "This is a species of cool, mid- to high elevation sites in NC, generally not in wet spots but in drier sunny, grassy places -- meadows and pastures, including grass balds and open woodlands. This is a late-blooming species, generally from September to October. It fruits shortly after flowering. This is roughly the same time span of flowering by the much more common S. cernua in the Mountains. This is a medium-sized species of Spiranthes in height, generally around 1 foot tall. The inflorescence of creamy-white flowers is fairly dense, but if you look closely you will note that they are arranged in a single tight row/rank, clearly spiraling. The similar S. cernua has several ranks of flowers. The flowers are a bit narrower and more tapering to the tip than are those of S. cernua, which has more rectangular-shaped flowers when viewed from the side. S. ochroleuca typically has some yellow on the top of the lip. S. lucida also has yellow on the top of the lip, but that species has a very strong patch of bright yellow on the lip and has several ranks/rows of flowers. Some populations of S. ochroleuca can have pale yellow flowers, though some are completely white, and thus you should be prepared to identify it by other characters, such as by its leaves (check references for more details). Unlike with S. lucida, observers have a chance to discover a new population, if they spend much time working grassy balds and other fairly high-elevation grassy places." |
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| 21st March 2024 | ||
