Water-spider Orchid is a native perennial orchid found in wet areas, blackwater swamps, pools, banks of creeks, rivers, and other riparian areas in North Carolina, south to Florida, west to southeastern Arkansas and Texas and into tropical America. This plant needs moist to wet conditions with acidic soil in full sun. It can be both terrestrial or aquatic and can form floating mats in stagnant pools. It spreads by stolons and can be vigorous, especially in wet conditions. it will grow 1 to 2 feet tall and spread up to 5 feet wide. The showy cluster of flowers repeats bloom from summer through fall and emits a strong vanilla fragrance at night to attract moths for pollination. This plant is difficult to transplant, and "nursery-grown" plants are often poached from the wild, so verify that plants are nursery propagated before purchasing. It will grow well in a bog among pitcher plants, margins of ponds, streams, lakes or in a container. Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems: Watch for Aphids, mealybugs, scale, spider mites, slugs and snails. Potential diseases include root rot, black spot and black rot.
Curated pairwise relationships between this plant and others in the library — who feeds
whom, who competes, who confuses the pests. Green reads as a good pairing, red as one to avoid.
No curated interactions recorded for this species yet.
Also noted by NC State
Related species the NC State Plant Toolbox flags for this plant — look-alikes to tell
apart, and plants that play a similar role in a planting. Ones we carry in the library are linked.
Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day)
Soil texture
Clay; Loam (Silt); Sand
Soil pH
Acid (<6.0)
Soil drainage
Moist | Occasionally Wet
NC region
Coastal
Mature size
Height: 1 ft. 0 in. - 2 ft. 0 in. | Width: 3 ft. 0 in. - 5 ft. 0 in.
Canopy layer
4 - Herbaceous (1-3 ft)
Form & Appearance
Habit / form
Erect; Spreading
Leaf arrangement
Alternate
Leaf size
> 6 inches long, < 1 inch wide
Hairs present
No
Leaf detail
Produces 3-8 yellow-green leaves that gradually reduce in size towards the top of the stem. 10 inches long, and 1 inch wide.
Flower color
Green; White
Flower value
Fragrant
Flower form
Raceme
Flower shape
Star
Flower size
< 1 inch
Flower detail
10-30 3/4 inch flowers in a dense raceme. The sepals are light green and the petals and lip of each flower are a greenish-white. The labellum is lobed with a spur and the individual flowers look spider-like. Blooms sporatically June-November.