Spiral Flowers

There are two different spiral flowers out at Rye Harbour at the moment...

Autumn lady's-tresses is a tiny orchid that has the delightful specific name of Spiranthes spiralis, which describes the way the flowers open up the flowering spike. This year at Castle Water they are having their best ever flowering after two years where there has been no grazing from April-August. This has benefited many flowers and insects and there are thousands of Autumn lady's-tresses flowering near the pit margin at the north of Caste Water, near the wooden bench at TQ923190.

Spiral Tasselweed, Ruppia cirrhosa, is an aquatic plant of sea water and it is thriving in the saline lagoons that have a direct connection to the sea. It's not going to win any prizes for its looks and is named for the tassel of flowers/fruits at the end of a long spiral stem. I haven't really given it a good look before, but today I collected some and took this photo on my best dinner plate. This is quite a scarce plant because there are so few saline lagoons, but at Rye Harbour we have made several new ones as part of a sea defence project and the specialised wildlife has colonised them rapidly.