ABSTRACT
These terrestrial orchids have been known as “ladies’-traces” or “ladies’-tresses” since at least the 1540s when they were listed by British herbalist William Turner. Indeed, Linnaeus knew some of them in 1753, but he included them within his genus Ophrys (eyebrow, because of hairy flower labellum or lip). It was not until after Louis Claude Marie Richard (1754-1821) had studied plants in South America and the Caribbean that the genus Spiranthes was created for them in 1817.
