Journal Number 110
November 2008

AUSTRALIAN NOTES
By David McConachie

Australian Spiranthes
By R. Bates
Reprinted from J. NOSSA 32 (6): p52 July 2008

Spiranthes is a cosmopolitan genus of perennial, terrestrial orchids: that is they grow on the ground and have leaves which are present all year round. They are generally known as Spiral ladies' tresses, an odd common name if there ever was one.

Until about twenty years ago there was thought to be only one Australian species which was supposedly the same as plants from eastern Asia and hence was called Spiranthes sinensis, which translated means "Chinese spiral flower". Fortunately the accepted name was changed to Spiranthes sinensis ssp. australis and eventually Spiranthes australis... ie Southern or Australian Spiranthes.

During a trip to the eastern states in the 1980's it became obvious to me that their little woodland species with its tiny bright flowers was not the same taxon as our South Australian swamp plants but we remained conservative and continued to call them all S. australis. At about the same time on NOSSA field trips we discovered a new self pollinating white flowered species in peat bogs of the Mount Lofty Ranges and this one was illustrated in the pink book Orchids of South Australia in 1990.

This year, 2008, and it has been a long wait, David Jones in the June Orchadian noted that true Spiranthes australis is indeed the small woodland form from the eastern states and that our South Australian plants would need a new name. Consequentially he named and described the outcrossing large pink flowered swamp species from the mountains as Spiranthes alticola or Mountain Spiranthes if you like.

So we have a new name for our pink flowered South Australian plants: S. alticola DL Jones. Our Spiranthes "selfing white" is still awaiting a name, and as for our South-east swamp plants we don't know whether they are S. alticola or not since they grow on the coastal plain.

The Orchids South Australia CD has pictures of all three Australian Spiranthes.