Common Name: ORCHID FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, terrestrial [growing on other pls], non-green (nutrition from association of roots with fungi) or green, generally from rhizomes or tubers with few to many fleshy to slender roots; cauline leaves +- reduced to sheathing stem bracts or not. Leaf: 1--many, basal to cauline, linear to +- round, alternate to opposite (if only 1 pair), generally sessile. Inflorescence: flowers 1--many, spike or raceme, bracted. Flower: bisexual, bilateral, in bud generally rotating 180° by twisting ovary (position of parts indicated after twisting); sepals generally 3, generally free, generally petal-like, uppermost generally erect, lateral with chin- or spur-like projection (mentum) or not; petals 3, 1 (lip) different, spurred or not; stamens generally 1 (3 in Cypripedium, 2 functional, 1 a staminode), fused with style, stigma into column, pollen generally lumped, generally removed as unit by insect; ovary inferior, 1-chambered, placentas 3, parietal, stigma 3 lobed, generally under column tip. Fruit: capsule. Seed: many, minute.
Genera In Family: +- 800 genera, +- 25000 species: especially tropics (worldwide except Antarctica). Many cultivated for ornament, especially Cattleya, Cymbidium, Epidendrum, Oncidium, Paphiopedilum; Vanilla planifolia Andrews fruits used to flavor food. Note: Platanthera may be paraphyletic without inclusion of Piperia (Bateman et al. 2009 Ann Bot 104:431--445); study needed.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ronald A. Coleman, Dieter H. Wilken & William F. Jennings, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Ronald A. Coleman, Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: LADIES TRESSES
Leaf: at flower 0 or +- basal. Inflorescence: spike, generally dense, flowers in spiral; bracts leaf-like, < to > flowers, gradually reduced upward, linear to oblong. Flower: sepals, lateral petals narrow-lanceolate; upper sepal +- fused to lateral petals, together hood-like, enclosing column, lower +- free, +- = lip, adherent to hood; lip not spurred, pouch-like, deeply grooved below middle, concave above; column < lip, tip with anther on back. Fruit: spreading to ascending.
Etymology: (Greek: coiled flowers) Note: Plants in SN may be hybrids between species below, for which Spiranthes stellata P.M. Brown et al. might be correct.
Unabridged Note: Plants in SN may be hybrids between species below, for which Spiranthes stellata P.M. Brown, Dueck, & K.M. Cameron might be correct.
Unabridged Reference: Sheviak 1990 Rhodora 92:213--231