''Spiranthes igniorchis'', or fire ladies' tresses, is a species of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

endemic to Florida.

Description

''Spiranthes igniorchis'', like all ''Spiranthes'', have small tubular flowers arranged in a spiral around the stem, with each flower made from 3 petals and 3 sepals. All sepals and petals are white, but the inside part of the lip (bottom-most petal) is pale yellow to greenish-yellow. They are closely related to and look similar to ''

Spiranthes longilabris ''Spiranthes longilabris'', the long lipped ladies' tresses is an orchid endemic to the southeastern United States. Description ''Spiranthes longilabris'' plants are 15–50 cm tall, with 3-5 basal leaves either present or absent when flow ...

'' but they have smaller flowers and bloom from August to September (vs December for ''longilabris''). They also look similar to '' Spiranthes laciniata'' (which blooms from May to July in Florida).

Distribution and habitat

''Spiranthes igniorchis'' is endemic to southern-central Florida and only grows in burnt seasonally wet grassland. The common name refers to the reliance on fire swept habitat - which is very rare now due to fire suppression.

Taxonomy

''Spiranthes igniorchis'' was first described by M. C. Pace et al. in 2017. Based on molecular analysis of collected specimens they determined those plants to be a sister species to ''Spiranthes longilabris'' within the

Spiranthes cernua ''Spiranthes cernua'', commonly called nodding lady's tresses, or nodding ladies' tresses, is a species of orchid occurring from Maritime Canada to the eastern and southern United States. As the common name suggests ''cernua'' means "nodding", or ...

species complex. Extensive herbarium searches among similarly looking ''Spiranthes'' specimens (but labelled as different species) found no other plants and none are known to have been collected prior to specimens collected by S. L. Orzell and E. Bridges in 2014 in Polk County, Florida. This indicates the species is endemic to a small area in the Osceola Plain of southern-central Florida.

References

igniorchis Orchids of the United States {{Orchidoideae-stub