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Summer lady's-tresses

Spiranthes aestivalis

Also called Summer ladiestresses

Summer lady's-tresses
Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0

Summer lady's-tresses is a wild, terrestrial orchid native to wet grassland and marsh edges in western and central Europe and northwest Africa. It is a protected, rare species that is not grown in gardens, so care here is for conservation context rather than home cultivation.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade, Full sun
Water
Keeps moist to wet soil through its growing season, as it grows in damp habitats.
Soil
Calcareous, damp, or wet grassland and fen soils.
Temperature
Tolerates cool temperate winters and warm summers; hardy in its native range.
How easy
Hard
Native range
W. & C. Europe to NW. Africa
Climate
temperate

About

Spiranthes aestivalis, commonly called the summer lady's-tresses, is a species of orchid found in western Europe, Turkey, Russia, and North Africa. The specific epithet, aestivalis, is derived from Latin and means "pertaining to the summer".

It has become locally extinct in the British Isles.

Other Spiranthes plants

Appalachian ladies' tresses · Spiranthes australis · Atlantic Ladies' Tresses · Texas lady's tresses · Case's lady's tresses · Nodding lady's tresses · Reclusive lady's tresses · Ute lady's tresses · Eaton's lady's tresses · Canelo lady's tresses · Fire Ladies' Tresses · Sphinx ladies' tresses

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Spiranthes aestivalis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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