Looking for Irish Ladies on Scottish Islands: aspects of the conservation biology of Irish Ladies' Tresses orchid Spiranthes romanzoffiana

摘要

When we found an unusual orchid on the remote Hebridean island of Colonsay in 1991 we had no idea that within a year we would lie living on ihe island, or that the plant would play an important part in our future lives. Half hidden in a clump of rushes on a grassy tussock in a small lochan, the flowering spike had miraculously escaped grazing by the surrounding sheep and cattle. The creamy white flowers, set in three ranks which spiralled around the yellowy green stem, confirmed that we had fotind Spiranthes romanzoffiana, Irish ladies' tresses. It was interesting to learn that, in 1930, Lady Strathcona had produced a detailed watercolour of a specimen of Irish ladies' tresses growing on Colonsay. This was sent, along with the specimen, to the British Museum of Natural History in London. The specimen did not travel well but the painting allowed the plant to be identified immediately as Spiranthes romanzoffiana. Up to that point, this species was only known from the south and north of Ireland.