S. glauca. Autumn lady's threshes belongs to a genus with many species in North-America, but only three species occur in Europe. Phylogeny Recent DNA-analysis showed that three Eurasian species of Spiranthes are most related to each other, with a clade consisting of S. sinensis and S. aestivalis being the sister group of S. spiralis. Etymology The botanical name is derived from the ancient Greek σπεῖρα (speira) "spiral" and ἄνθος (anthos) "flower". The species name spiralis also refers to the placement of the flowers in a spiral. Distribution and habitat Range Autumn lady's tresses occurs in Europe and small adjacent parts of North Africa and Asia. In the west, it occurs from Ireland to Portugal, in the south from Spain including the Balearic Islands, the coastal mountains of Algeria, Italy including Sicily, Greece including Crete, the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Sea Coasts of Turkey and the Caucasus Mountains, North Iran eastwards to the Western Himalayas. To the North its limit is from northern England, the Netherlands, Denmark and the southern Baltic, Poland to western Ukraine. It is now considered regionally extinct in Denmark, but is has been introduced to the Swedish island of Öland, where it now seems to be established. In Switzerland the most recent locations are around Lake Lucerne, the Rhine Valley near Chur, in the area of Lake Walen and in Ticino. In Italy it is found in the north-east near the sea. In Great Britain and Ireland its northernmost occurrence is on the Isle of Man. It has never been found in Scotland. In Ireland it has a scattered southern distribution north to County Sligo. In Germany, the plant is endangered in Bavaria (Franconian Heights and Franconian Jura) and Hesse, very endangered in Baden-Württemberg (Swabian Jura and foothills of the Alps) and Rhineland-Palatinate, and near extinction in Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. In France, it occurs across the country, except for the regions of Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, and the departments of Nord, Aisne, Eure, Bas-Rhin, Val d'Oise and Seine-et-Marne. It is relatively common on the coasts of Brittany and the Provence, and in the valley of the Orne.<ref></ref> The original range of S. spiralis is probably Mediterranean. Only when man created the habitat for this orchid by settling and converting forests to agriculture and animal husbandry, the species could spread to the north (7000 to 4000 BC). Habitat It grows in dry grassy places such as meadows,