robust than those in Western and Central Europe. Inflorescence The inflorescence is a slender spike of (exceptionally 20 cm) long, with usually ten to twenty-five (rarely as few as six or as many as thirty) flowers. They are set in a single row, usually in a clockwise or counterclockwise spiral winding around the axis, or rarely all to one side. Flower Each flower is subtended by a pale green, lanceolate bract. This shelters the base of the flower, tapers, bends toward the tip, has white edges and scattered glandular hairs at the base. They are usually long and wide. The flowers are very small, ± ½ cm (0.2 in), white, and spread a fragrance that is said to by reminiscent of lily of the valley, vanilla or almonds. The flowers produce nectar unlike in many other orchids. The flower has no spur. Perianth Outer tepals are oblong-ovate, slightly tapering to a blunt tip, long, white with a light green vein, have a ciliate or very finely serrated edge, and on the outside with little glandular hairs. Inner perianth leaves are white, elongate with a blunt tip, a vein and adhere with the slightly longer upper outer perianth leaf, thereby forming an upward decurved upper lip. The lower lip is pale green with a wide irregular jagged edge of crystal-like transparent white growths, oblong, approximately long and 2½–3 mm (0.10–0.12 in) wide, trough-shaped, rounded and without lobes and at its top bending down. Both lips give the flower as a whole a trumpet shape. The lower lip encloses the column (merger of the stamen and style) at the base, and there are also two white, glossy, round, nectar-secreting glands, each with a ring of papillae around their base. The small column is green. Fruit and seed The capsule is 5½-7 mm (0.22-0.27 in) long, or occasionally up to thick, oval shaped, and filled with countless tiny and very lightweight seeds of long at thick. Growth cycle Around the end of August a rosette of leaves appears, which stays green over the winter and dies back in July at the latest. During the following weeks, a flower stalk emerges from the centre of the dead leaf rosette, and during flowering, one or two new rosettes are formed. Autumn lady's tresses blossoms after the summer (August–October). The species is not self-pollinating. The pollination is done by bees and bumblebees. In nature, less than