Autumn Lady's-tresses - Spiranthes spiralis

Last fall I wondered over to pay my landlady, whom lives not far from us in town. I was going up her path and noticed about 20 of these little plants. She wasn't in so I had a close look at them. I was almost sure they were an Orchid of some sort.

I went home and looked them up in my collins book, sure enough Lady's Tresses!! I went back the next day, wet and windy day and said....Don't mow them! I'll be back as soon as its sunny to photograph them. She's a bit elderly and frankly the word Orchid may as well have been the word weed, sure enough two days later they had all been mowed!! I was gutted, but as I was leaving a thought! Neighbours!!

Sure enough her next door neighbour hadn't mowed and she had three of them in her front garden. Both ladies lived in thier house many years and neither of them remembered ever seeing them before. The neighbour allowed me to crawl around in her yard and photograph them, and was quite impressed she had wild Orchids growing in her yard.

You can see here, how tiny they are, when the dandelion (to the right) is as tall or taller in some cases.