Holy Island Meeting July 15th & 16th 2006
Epipactis palustris (Marsh Helleborine)
Epipactis sancta (Lindisfarne Helleborine)
Epipactis dunensis (Dune Helleborine on Anglesey for comparison)
Lindisfarne morning July 15th: The Snook II
Helleborines
The dune slacks of the Snook held hundreds of Epipactis palustris (Marsh Helleborine) which is actually a fairly common Helleborine in this sort of habitat but arguably the most beautiful of all. The flowers of this Helleborine will often open so you can see the structures and colours inside. And as you can see from the photo it will open several flowers on one stem creating a spectacular show in mid July.
The local rarity, another somewhat duller looking Helleborine, was for many decades known to us all as Epipactis dunensis. The taxonomists revisited the Helleborine scene some years ago and relegated it to a mere variety of narrow lipped orchid: Epipactis leptochile var dunensis. This is how it is currently named in many botanical books.
There was much rubbing out and muttering amongst WFS list compilers in those dark days because adding varieties ("varz") is the special province of only elite Parnassian cohorts who claim to have seen more than 2,000 species.
A few years later, as so often happens with taxonomists, the Dune Helleborine gained promotion back to the Premier League with its old name Epipactis dunensis. All those people who had seen it and then rubbed it off their lists now added it back not knowing whether laugh, cry or wait for the next change.
Meanwhile Delforge and other workers noting that there were morphological (shape and appearance) differences between the Holy Island plant and the main populations in the West, suggested at the turn of the millennium that the Lindisfarne species would be better classified as Epipactis pietzi var sancta. This name never seemed to catch on amongst the WFS orchid spotters who were by this time fairly fed up with the messing about.
I'm reminded at this point how often it was suggested in early days as an amateur botanist knowing only English names that I should make the effort to learn the Latin. Greater precision, scientific accuracy, international recognition, sub species classification blah, blah, blah. You've heard it all before.
Actually it's the English names which never change but since there are too many different ones for each common plant and none for sub species we absolutely need the systematic Latin ones. This search for taxonomic accuracy results in books, references and floras publishing different systematic (Latin) names for the same plant and a great deal of confusion naming things. For instance the name changes to Orchid and Helleborine species beautifully illustrated in Foley and Clarke Orchids of the British Isles are legitimised by the genetic work of Bateman, Denholm and others. They undoubtedly follows the rules set down by The Code of Botanical Nomenclature but don't yet appear in the definitive BSBI lists nor the Vice County lists nor any flora I have yet seen.
In 2002 genetic work by Squirrell et al. confirmed that Epipactis dunenis at Lindisfarne was indeed sufficiently different from other similar looking Helleborines to be given species rank and therefore a name of its own. This new name seems to be accepted by practising field botanists although it doesn't yet appear on the BSBI lists as Epipactis sancta.
It was duly sanctified as the Lindisfarne Helleborine (Epipactis sancta) although it is not known whether there was an appropriate holy watering ceremony directed by the Archbishop of York. It has the additional special status of being English Endemic species.
Having noted all that about distinct genetic differences, if you were to present Epipactis dunensis alongside Epipactis sancta in a herbarium my guess is that only a few of our enthusiasts would be able to tell which was which. This will be an increasing problem for field botanists because laboratory genetic analysis resulting in name changes doesn't always mean major enough differences in appearance for separation in the field. As we all know from experience there can be quite big differences in appearance observed between plants growing in different habitats. Even bigger differences in appearance sometimes exist between exactly the same species growing in the European continent and those on our islands.
Please note that you won't find any reference to Epipactis sancta in Stace Volume 1 or 2 as the change happened after publication.
So at this point in the meeting we were all crowding round one or two plants of Epipactis sancta growing in the Salix repens (Creeping Willow) shrubbery (just like E. dunensis does on Newborough Warren in Anglesey) marvelling at how lifetime lists can be enhanced or diminished by a bit of laboratory work.
Elizabeth was at pains to point out that Epipactis sancta isn't a newly arrived species - it's always lived on Lindisfarne although previously as a lay rather than ordained member of the Helleborine family.
Perhaps a bit of genetic magic science on our Anglesey plant could create The Celtic Helleborine (Epipactis druidiforme) ?