LADIES' TRESSES

any plant of the genus Spiranthes, family Orchidaceae, numbering as many as 300 species of orchids found in woods and grasslands throughout most of the world. Goodyera repens, an unrelated British species, is known as creeping ladies' tresses. Species of Spiranthes vary greatly in size and flower colour, but all have a spiral cluster of small whitish flowers borne at the top of a spike. Some species bloom in autumn, such as nodding ladies' tresses, or autumn tresses (S. cernua), in North America and autumn ladies' tresses (S. spiralis) in Europe. Slender ladies' tresses (S. gracilis) of North America has a single spiral of small, white flowers.