S. romanzoffiana was
first described from the Aleutian islands, Alaska in 1828
and it takes its name from N. Romanzoff, an
18th/19th century minister in the Russian government which at that time
governed the islands. In Europe this orchid is commonly referred to as Irish Ladies Tresses.
This is one of Europe's rarest orchids and the exact reason for its existence in the north west of the British Isles and Ireland is the subject of much speculation. The natural home of S. romanzoffiana is in the boreal and temperate areas of the United States where it inhabits peat bogs and acidic coastal marshes. Its sites in Europe, which are centred on the west coast and islands of Scotland and Cork and Kerry in Ireland offer very similar habitats. In the last 10 years a new population has been discovered on the coast of central Wales at Borg Bog. How it arrived in these locations divides opinion between the view that it's a 10,000 year old survivor from before the last ice age or that seed is ferried across the Atlantic by birds or perhaps as windblown material. The European locations for this orchid do coincide quite conveniently with the summer passage of White Fronted Geese and this potential source of colonization appears a real possibility.
S. romanzoffiana is recognizable from its very early stages by the the manner in which the flowers/buds tightly spiral up the stem and also in the the solidity of the flower head itself. Although this species is appreciably more robust than the the other European Spiranthes, it is somewhat weedy in comparison to its relatives across the Atlantic. The pictures are all from a site in Argyll and date from the middle of August, at which time the plants were still not in full bloom and consequently the photoraphs don't completely depict the characteristic flower spirals mentioned above.
This is one of Europe's rarest orchids and the exact reason for its existence in the north west of the British Isles and Ireland is the subject of much speculation. The natural home of S. romanzoffiana is in the boreal and temperate areas of the United States where it inhabits peat bogs and acidic coastal marshes. Its sites in Europe, which are centred on the west coast and islands of Scotland and Cork and Kerry in Ireland offer very similar habitats. In the last 10 years a new population has been discovered on the coast of central Wales at Borg Bog. How it arrived in these locations divides opinion between the view that it's a 10,000 year old survivor from before the last ice age or that seed is ferried across the Atlantic by birds or perhaps as windblown material. The European locations for this orchid do coincide quite conveniently with the summer passage of White Fronted Geese and this potential source of colonization appears a real possibility.
S. romanzoffiana is recognizable from its very early stages by the the manner in which the flowers/buds tightly spiral up the stem and also in the the solidity of the flower head itself. Although this species is appreciably more robust than the the other European Spiranthes, it is somewhat weedy in comparison to its relatives across the Atlantic. The pictures are all from a site in Argyll and date from the middle of August, at which time the plants were still not in full bloom and consequently the photoraphs don't completely depict the characteristic flower spirals mentioned above.
