Family: Orchidaceae, Orchid view all from this family

Description 1 stem, or several in a clump, with 3-6 leaves near base and up to 60 creamy white bilaterally symmetrical flowers blooming in 1-4 gently spiraled rows in a dense spike.
Flowers: 3/8-1/2" (9-13 mm) long; sepals 3, lanceolate, projecting forward, the tips of the 2 at side often curled back; 2 upper petals form a hood; lip bent downward at middle and projecting from beneath hood, constricted behind its finely fringed tip.
Leaves: 2-10" (5-25 cm) long, lanceolate, about 1/2" (1.3 cm) wide or less.
Height: 4-24" (10-60 cm).

Flower July-October.

Habitat Generally moist open places, but variable, occurring from coastal bluffs to high in the mountains.

Range Southern California to New Mexico; north through most of northern North America.

Discussion Western Ladies'-tresses (S. porrifolia), which grows in similar habitats from southern California to southern Washington and also in northern Utah, has a triangular lip barely constricted behind the tip, the sepals only about 3/8" (9 mm) long.