WHERE’S WILDLIFE • WILDFLOWER FIELD GUIDE

Sphinx Ladies’-tresses

Spiranthes incurva

A slender native orchid with ivory-white flowers winding around an upright spike. Explore field photographs from Scuppernong Prairie and the Lulu Lake area in southeastern Wisconsin.

Sphinx Ladies’-tresses at Scuppernong Prairie, Wisconsin. Select a photo to enlarge.

NATIVE • WILDFLOWER

At a glance

Family Orchidaceae
Life cycle Perennial
Blooms Late summer into fall
Height Usually about 4–16 inches
Habitat Open meadows, moist prairies, fens and lake edges
Native range Central and northeastern North America, including Wisconsin

Range Map

Observation maps show reported sightings rather than the complete range.

Field photographs

33 field photographs from Scuppernong Prairie and the Lulu Lake area, Wisconsin. Compare flower details, whole plants and their surroundings. Select any photo to enlarge.

How to recognize it

Look for a single slender stalk bearing small white to ivory flowers in a spiral. In these photographs, many flowers project outward nearly horizontally, with the lower lip bending down at the opening. The lip has a pale yellowish center and a finely ruffled edge.

The upper stem and flower spike are finely hairy. Narrow basal leaves may remain at flowering or may already have withered. Check the plant’s own base; the larger leaves surrounding these spikes belong to neighboring vegetation.

Where and when to look

Look in open, grassy habitats in late summer and early fall, including moist prairies, fens, meadows and lake edges. The small pale spikes can disappear among taller vegetation until viewed at ground level.

These photographs document plants at Scuppernong Prairie and around Lulu Lake in southeastern Wisconsin. Bloom timing varies with location and year.

Range & sightings

Native to central and northeastern North America, including Wisconsin. Older records may be filed under Spiranthes cernua.

Range reference: North American Orchid Conservation Center. Nearby sightings help establish local occurrence but do not identify an individual plant.

Look closely at the flowers

Each flower has a projecting upper hood and a lower lip that bends downward near its tip. Look for the pale central area and finely ruffled lip edge visible in these close-ups.

For difficult identifications, photograph the front and side of fresh flowers, the plant’s base and its leaves. The tiny nectar glands at the lip base provide an important distinction from related species; they are not clearly resolved in every field photograph.

Similar species

Great Plains Ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum) can occur in similar habitats. Its flowers often have a strong almond-like fragrance. The inward-curving nectar glands at the base of the lip are an important feature of S. incurva, best assessed in a detailed flower examination.

Nodding Ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes cernua) belongs to the same difficult species complex. Older references used that name more broadly. Flower posture, lip structure and geographic range should be considered together; spiral tightness alone is not a reliable distinction.

A name with a recent history

Spiranthes incurva was recognized at species rank in the 2017 revision of the S. cernua complex. Older records may therefore use a different name for plants now treated as Sphinx Ladies’-tresses.

Document the whole plant

Photographs of the entire stalk help separate the orchid’s narrow leaves from nearby vegetation. A close-up of flowers alone may leave some identification features unresolved.

Sources & further reading

Keep learning

Explore other native orchids in the Wildflower Guide, or practice identifying wildflowers in the quiz.

Sphinx Ladies’-tresses