Spiranthes spiralis can grow from 20 to 35 cm. 4 to 6 leaves are seen. The flower board is dense and multi-flowered. The flowers are small, about 5 mm, and fragrant. It occurs between August and October in meadows and clearings of woodlands.
A stunning, delicate orchid, whose individual white blooms grow in a near-perfect spiral and are tightly packed against one another round the short stem.
This slender plant can be difficult to spot and to make this more tricky, its flowering time can vary from one year to the next. The leaves at the base die back before the flowers appear. Each flower has a green-centred lip with a frilly white edge. It is reported to have the scent of coconut.
It grows in a variety of habitats including dry grass, meadows, garigue and pine woodland. It is generally found on calcareous soils and rarely on acidic heathland.
Whilst Autumn lady's-traces were not often used in physic, the 16th Century naturalist William Turner commented that 'the full and sappy rootes of Ladie traces eaten or boiled in milke and drunke, provoke venery, nourish and strengthen the bodie, and be good for such as are fallen into a consumption or fever Hectique'. Geoffrey Grigson lyrically compares them to a braid of the Virgin's hair.
REGISTERED MAIL