Il. SprirRANTHES GRACILIS var. FLORIDANA 
Spiranthes gracilis (Bigel.) Beck var. floridana 
(Wherry) Correll in Bot. Mus. Leafl. Harv. Univ. 8 
(1940) 76. 
Spiranthes Becht Lindley Gen. & Sp. Orch. Pl. (1840) 
472, ex parte. 
Ihidium floridanum Wherry in Journ. Wash. Acad. 
21 (1931) 49. 
Spiranthes floridana (Wherry) Cory in Rhodora 38 
(1986) 405. 
Spiranthes floridana (Wherry) Correll in Journ. Elisha 
Mitchell Sci. Soe. 58 (1987) 159. 
Spiranthes tuberosa Rafinesque, sensu Fernald in Rho- 
dora 48 (1946) 10, 189. 
When Edgar T. Wherry described Ibidium florida- 
num, he cited Spiranthes gracilis (Bigel.) Beck as a close 
ally, admitting that a search for morphological differ- 
ences between these species had not been wholly succes- 
ful. The only differences of consequence between Ibidiwm 
Hloridanum and its northern ally are, as Wherry stated, 
chiefly in the color of the flowers, the dates of anthesis and 
the geographical distribution. It should be noted that 
Wherry used the length of the lateral sepals in relation 
to ‘‘the bend of the lip’’ as a separative character, but 
this does not appear to be a dependable guide to a con- 
stant difference between the northern and southern rep- 
resentatives of the Spiranthes gracilis alliance. Wherry 
gave the geographical distribution of [bidiuwm floridanum 
as reaching westward to Texas and northward to South 
Carolina, with a blooming season extending from Decem- 
ber to May. He reported specimens from South Carolina, 
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and 
Texas. For Spiranthes gracilis (Bigel.) Beck he gave 
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