Creeping Lady's-tresses

My second find this week was very serendipitous. I was planning to walk the dog in a particular spot but someone else was parked there, so I went to another spot where I had walked many times before along a minor road.  I decided to wander at random in the pinewood plantation there, not expecting to do any botanising or find anything new, when a small white orchid growing on a tree stump among heather caught my eye. It was just a few inches high and there were no others nearby.  I got rather excited and took several photos.

The first find

 Walking on, I found a few more, and a few more and in the end I found hundreds throughout the wood!

I thought it might be Creeping Lady's-tresses which I had only seen once before at Loch-an-Eilean.  Checking in my Wild Flower book when I got home confirmed it.  Its scientific name is Goodyera repens.

I went back the next day and found even more of these tiny white spikes in the spaces between the rows of pines. A  long description of the plant can be found here and here.  It is mainly restricted to the Highlands in old pine forests, more than 95 years old.  It can spread by runners (hence the name- Creeping) so often appears in clumps, or by seed when it is pollinated by a bumble bee.

A group of Creeping Lady's tresses in a Scots Pine wood

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The flowers are arranged in a spiral but turn so that they all face one way.  This makes the back of the stalk look like a plait which is why it is called lady's-tresses.

The plaited back of the stem, also showing the scale like leaves up the stem.

The outer parts of the flowers are covered in sticky hairs.

The base of the stalk has oval leaves which have noticeable cross veins between the main veins.

Close up of basal leaf showing veins and cross-veins

Some of the runners give rise to rosettes of leaves which do not have a flower stalk - yet.  Unlike other orchids, the leaves are evergreen and persist over the winter.

I am always amazed at how even familiar places can reveal a new discovery, even when you think you have seen everything.  It certainly made my day, especially when I found that no one else had recorded this lovely rare plant growing there.