Stems red-purple to yellowish brown to yellow, base not strongly thickened nor bulbous. Inflorescences: racemes lax to dense, 10-55 × 1.3-3.5 cm. Flowers 2-25, inconspicuous; perianth open; sepals and petals purplish brown, often greenish distally, or pure yellow, 3-veined; sepals lanceolate, 4.5-10 mm; lateral sepals upcurved, connivent with dorsal sepal and petals, forming hood over column, somewhat falcate; petals often spotted with purple, broadly lanceolate, 4-7.2 mm; lip white, often spotted with purple, ovate to suborbiculate, unlobed, 4-7.5 × 2.5-7.5 mm, with 2 distinct basal lamellae, margins erose-denticulate to nearly entire; column curved toward lip, yellow to white, often with purplish apex, 2.4-5 mm, with basal auricles; ovary 3-8 mm; mentum present. Capsules ellipsoid-obovoid, 7-14 × 3.5-6.2 mm. Flowering Jan--Jul, according to latitude. Deciduous and coniferous woods, often preferring richer habitats than other coral-roots; 0--3100 m; Ala., Ariz., Ark., Colo., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.J., N.Mex., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Va., Wash., W.Va., Wyo.; Mexico. Western collections of Corallorhiza wisteriana have frequently been misidentified as C. maculata. Antho-cyanin-free forms from the central states have been misidentified as C. trifida.
Stem 1-4 dm, purple or reddish; infl 3-7 cm, with 10-15 fls; sep and lateral pet extending forward over the column, scarcely spreading, narrowly lanceolate, 5-7.5 mm, greenish-yellowish, tinged with purple and marked with short purple lines; lip deflexed, about as long as the sep, narrowed below into a slender claw more than half as long as the blade, the latter broadly oval, crenulate, notched at the rounded summit, white, dotted with purple. Damp woods; Pa. and s. N.J. to Fla., w. to se. Nebr., Okla., and Tex., and in the w. cordillera. Apr.-June.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.