L. N. May

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Open moist places generally and often striking because of the late blooming season when little else may be in flower among the grasses and sedges. Shores, ditches, grassy roadsides and openings, sandy excavations, meadows, beach pools and interdunal swales, shaded rock ledges northward; often in sandy soil, sometimes marly or peaty, at bog borders. Tends to grow in drier sites than S. romanzoffiana. This is our commonest species of Spiranthes; Michigan plants at least have pure white flowers that contrast with the creamier flowers of S. ochroleuca and S. casei. Spiranthes cernua blooms from August into mid-September, though stragglers occasionally bloom later.

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