garigue, heaths, and pine woodland, generally on calcareous soils. Ecology Autumn lady's tresses may be found on quite different substrates, from weathered chalk and limestone to sand and gravel in dunes and slightly acidic heathlands. Occasionally, it has also been found on clay on sloping sites. It sometimes occurs in lawns, and was reported from the top of a wall in Sicily. Soils need to be low in nitrogen and phosphorus and neither dry nor wet. The species occurs in different plant communities, most commonly in highly diverse Festuca ovina–Avenula pratensis grasslands that exist because of intense grazing by sheep or rabbits. These grasslands contain grasses, dicots, and mosses in different mixtures. The turf is short, continuous and consist of very small individual plants. Characteristic species that may be abundant in these grasslands in the UK include the grasses Sheep's fescue Festuca ovina, red fescue F. rubra, Quaking-grass Briza media, crested hair-grass Koeleria macrantha and Crested dog's-tail Cynosurus cristatus, the dicots ribwort plantain Plantago lanceolata, Small burnet Poterium sanguisorba ssp. sanguisorba, Common Bird's-foot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus, Common Cat's-ear Hypochaeris radicata, Mouse-ear hawkweed Pilosella officinarum, Rough hawkbit Leontodon hispidus and Dwarf thistle Cirsium acaule, and the moss Pseudoscleropodium purum. In the Netherlands, the remaining population in an old dune grassland occurs in a community akin to the Botrychio-Polygaletum, where it occurs with Briza media, Glaucous sedge Carex flacca, Broad-leaved thyme Thymus pulegioides, Common milkwort Polygala vulgaris and Fairy flax Linum catharticum. Root symbiosis Like most other species of orchids, autumn lady's tresses needs a root fungus (or mycorrhiza) for its seed to germinate under field conditions. The seeds contain no endosperm or other food reserves. After germination, the lower part of the seedling (or protocorm) is colonized by mycorrhiza. The seedlings parasitize actually on the mycorrhiza, which provides both water, minerals and organic compounds. Since it takes about eight years before the plant produces green parts, this part of the lifecycle of this orchid is very long. Mature plants also contain mycorrhiza most of the year, but the amount of hyphae fluctuates with a maximum during the fall and winter. Most deeply infiltrated hyphae are digested at the beginning of flowering time, though the outer cell layer of the tuber may still contain living hyphae. New tubers are colonized when they have reached their maximum size. Infiltrated cells contain coils of hyphae of Rhizoctonia-type. Autumn lady's tresses can accommodate several types