Spiranthes L.C. Richard
in Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Vol. 4; 1818; p. 50

INTRODUCTION: Some thirty to fifty species are now included in this genus distributed throughout the world.

DERIVATION OF GENUS NAME: The genus name was coined by Louis Claude Marie Richard in 1817 from the Greek speira = spiral and anthos = flower in reference to the spirally arranged flowers of the inflorescence.

TYPE SPECIES: Sprianthes aestiralis L.C. Richard

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GENUS: Terrestrial herbs with fleshy, elon-gated, tuberous roots. The stems are rather short, erect with con-duplicate, fleshy leaves. The terminal inflorescence has its small, tubular flowers arranged spirally on the rhachis. The flowers are often quite colourful. The species Spiranthes sinensis Ames is wide-spread from Asia to New Guinea, some Pacific Islands and Australia.

NUMBER OF SPECIES IN NEW GUINEA: one only

HABITAT: wet bogs, grass and marshlands, above 1,500 m

CONSERVATION STATUS: not threatened

SPECIES LINE DRAWING: Spiranthes sinensis (Pers.) Ames
drawn by N.H.S. Howcroft from live specimen ex Mt. Kaindi, Wau, Morobe Province
KEY TO ILLUSTRATION: A: habit; B: flowers; C: dorsal sepal; D: petal; E: lateral sepal; F: column and labellum, side view; G: labellum; H: column and anther will pollinia

View photo:Spiranthes sinensis
photo by Wolfgang H. Bandisch