WYOMING’S
 Threatened and Endangered 

Plant Species
 

Ute Ladies’- Tresses Orchid
 

Bureau of Land Management 

BLM
The flowers of Ute ladies’-

tresses orchid appear mainly in 

August, opening from the bottom 

upward on the flowering spike. 

mycorrhizae to work in 

order to provide important 

necessary for flowering. 

In Wyoming, Ute ladies’-

short but dense and is 

dominated by Redtop 

(Agrostis stolonifera) 

or Switchgrass 

(Panicum 

virgatum)— 

occasionally Baltic 

rush (Juncus balticus) 

or Few-flowered 

spikerush (Eleocharis 

quinqueflora) is 

dominant as well. 

Other associated 

species include 

Horsetail (Equisetum 

laevigatum), Blue-eyed 

grasses (Sisyrinchium 

angustifolium and S. 

montanum), Threesquare (Schoenoplectus 

pungens) and White prairie 

aster (Symphyotrichum 

falcatum). 

cOnservatiOn 

The Endangered Species 

Act defines a threatened 

is likely to become in danger of 

extinction within the foreseeable 

future throughout all or a 

listed threatened species, the 

Ute ladies’-tresses orchid is also 

protected under BLM Special 

Status Species management policy. 

The purpose of such policy is to 

provide protection from potential 

threats such as energy development, 

suburban development, noxious 

weeds, non-selective use of 

herbicides, water development, and 

land management practices. 

plant conservation and protection 

are essential to sustain ecological, 

Ute Ladies’- thickened roots. Basal leaves are interdependent relationship with a derived from river deposits, and 

tresses Orchid linear and persist at flowering time. fungus—these “fungus roots” are remain moist through most of the 

The flowering portion of the plant called mycorrhizae. The plant lives growing season. Compared to wet Most people think of orchids as (inflorescence) is a spike 11⁄2 - 6 underground for several years before meadow conditions elsewhere in the

extravagantly showy and colorful inches long with numerous, small actually putting up leaves. In any area, Ute ladies’-tresses habitat is flowers that grow only in tropical white to ivory flowers arranged given year, individual Ute ladies’- hydrologically stable, comparatively rain forests or a greenhouse. in loose spirals that somewhat tresses plants may flower, remain low in dissolved minerals and

Surprisingly, 30 native orchid resemble the braids (tresses) of in an inconspicuous vegetative clay content, and high in Calcium species occur in the wetland and a woman’s hair. The petals and stage with narrow leaves, or remain concentrations. 

joined up to half of their are the primary 

petals and petal-like sepals bumblebees 

romanzoffiana) has seeds, and 

only at the very base, 

from one another or joined of its fungus ally. 

leaf-like sepals are separate entirely below ground with the help Wyoming, though most 

montane forest areas of 

The grassy vegetation of Ute 

ladies’- tresses habitat is relatively have small, drab 

greenish or white and each flower has a

flowers. Wyoming’s characteristic violinrarest orchid is the shaped lower lip petal. Ute ladies’-tresses 

Unlike Ute Flowering takes about orchid (Spiranthes 

ladies’-tresses, the two weeks for any one diluvialis), which 

much more common plant. Flowers must remained unknown 

Northern ladies’-tresses be pollinated in the state until 

orchid (Spiranthes to produce 1993. B.E. Nelson, our public lands. The BLM, in manager of the Rocky partnership with local, state, and Mountain Herbarium, federal agencies, works to achieve discovered the first significant portion of its its multiple-use mandate of public length, and the inflorescence is a pollinators. By population in the state in Goshen range. Federal law land management. For over two County, one year after the species more condensed spike. Northern August, when prohibits the removal decades, the BLM has worked with was first listed as threatened under ladies’-tresses is a montane many Wyoming or destruction of the Wyoming Natural Diversity species generally found at higher plants have the Endangered Species Act by the threatened plants on Database and the Rocky Mountain U.S. elevations. The resemblance of already flowered Fish and Wildlife Service. At any federal land or Herbarium at the University of the two ladies’-tresses is not an or are drawing the time of listing the plant was as a result of federal Wyoming to survey and research accident; genetic studies show that water from elaborate known only from Colorado and actions. As a federally- plant species as needed to maintain Utah in addition to a historical Ute ladies’-tresses originated as a root systems, Ute Wyoming’s endowment of native hybrid between S. romanzoffiana ladies’-tresses puts its record in Nevada. Since then plants and their habitats. A additional populations of Ute and another Spiranthes that now

rangewide status review was occurs only in the Great Plains ladies’-tresses orchid have been undertaken for Ute ladies’-tresses east of Wyoming. Bog orchids also water and nutrients discovered in Converse, Laramie, orchid in 2005 in partial response to resemble ladies’-tresses, but have and Niobrara counties in Wyoming a legal request to drop the species a tubular spur jutting out from the as well as Idaho, Montana, from the Endangered Species Nebraska, Washington, and most back of the lip petal. habitat List. As of Spring 2008, a final recently in British Columbia, decision on potential delisting by

Canada. Life histOry tresses typically occurs the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

Ute ladies’-tresses orchid appears on eastern plains in has not been made. Regardless of

descriptiOn to be a long-lived perennial moist valley bottoms the outcome, Ute ladies’-tresses The BLM recognizes that Ute ladies’ -tresses is a perennial and related species have been where small will not disappear from Wyoming 

documented to live over 50 perennial rivers and anytime soon thanks to all of the herb with stems 5-20 inches tall 

arising from short, tuberous- years. After its microscopic seeds streams are fed by conservation measures that are now economic, and aesthetic values of germinate, the roots form an groundwater. Soils are well-drained, species as any species which in place. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suggested Reading 

Fertig, W., R. Black and P. Wolken. 2005. Rangewide 

status review of Ute ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes 

diluvialis). Prepared for U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 

and Central Utah Water Conservancy District. 

Hartman, R. L. and B. E. Nelson. 1995. Final report 

on field inventory for Ute lady’s tresses – Spiranthes 

diluvialis - in eastern Wyoming and a detailed 

discussion of a new locality. Rocky Mountain 

Herbarium, Laramie, Wyo. 

Heidel, B. 2007. Survey of Spiranthes diluvialis 

(Ute ladies’-tresses) in eastern Wyoming 2005-06. 

Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, Laramie, 

Wyo. 

For more information contact: 

Bureau of Land Management 

(307) 775-6256 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

(307) 772-2374 

Wyoming Natural Diversity Database 

(307) 766-3020 

Citation: 

B. Heidel, W. Fertig, F. Blomquist, and T. 

Abbott. 2008. Wyoming’s Threatened and 

Endangered Species: Ute Ladies’-Tresses 

Orchid. Wyoming Bureau of Land Management 

in collaboration with Wyoming Natural 

Diversity Database. 

Note: New data on the biology and status of 

this species are being collected constantly, and 

parts of the information in this publication may 

become outdated. The fact sheet provides a 

general overview of the status of this species 

and is not intended as the sole source of 

species information for planning and research 

purposes. For additional information on this or 

other threatened and endangered species, or for 

additional copies of this publication, refer to the 

suggested readings or contact the botany contacts 

of the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming, 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Wyoming, and 

the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database. 

This Ute Ladies’-Tresses Orchid fact sheet is 

one in a series on Wyoming’s Threatened and 

Endangered Plant Species published by Bureau 

of Land Management and the Wyoming Natural 

Diversity Database. 

Front cover photo by Kristi DuBois 

Back cover photo by B. Heidel 

Inset photo by Bill Jennings 

Ute Ladies’-Tresses illustration by Carolyn Crawford 

BLM/WY/AE-09/010+1150