Mike/all,
The Dactylorhiza article has been made available by one of the authors here:
http://www.academia.edu/2134936/Tax...he_British_and_Irish_tetraploid_marsh-orchids
As far as I understood, the situation regarding the Lindisfarne Helleborine population is not straight forward. Whether it is a species or not has been extensively discussed in various literature for the last decade or so, and may also need to include how you define other 'Dune' Helleborine populations around the country.
A couple of quotes on the subject. If you go through the Refs. of these articles you can find most relevant papers and contrary views. There may also be more recent work if you go forward rather than back:
Richard Bateman (2009) What’s in a Name? 1. The Heavy Responsibility of Using a Previously Described Name JOURNAL of the HARDY ORCHID SOCIETY Vol. 6 No. 2 (52) April 2009
58
"...available genetic data would allow recognition of Epipactis sancta as either an unusually poorly differentiated species or an unusually well differentiated subspecies of E. dunensis. Given the relatively equivocal genetic data, the choice should perhaps be made on the basis of careful statistical comparison of the morphology of the Lindisfarne population with other closely related helleborines. Such work has not yet been published, either for E. sancta or for the even more problematic Tyneside populations of E. dunensis."
John Richards & Jane Squirrell (2009) Epipactis leptochila complex in Britain BSBI News 112
"The question of the identity of the plants on Lindisfarne, in North Northumberland, is more problematic. These resembled west coast E. dunensis in their isozyme profile, but displayed an unique chloroplast DNA sequence which was unlikely to have derived from other sequences in this group. Nevertheless, the 'Lindisfarne Helleborine' (E. sancta) is not as distinct from west coast E. dunensis, molecularly, as E. dunensis is from E. leptochila and E. muelleri. If the 'Lindisfarne Helleborine' were morphologically identical to west coast E. dunensis, this would raise the interesting question as to whether two plants of different origins but closely convergent morphology should be regarded as the same or different species. However, it is the opinion of JR that the 'Lindisfarne Helleborine' does not resemble E. dunensis very closely, having in particular a less dense inflorescence with fewer flowers, which is relatively longer in relation to the leafy part of the stem. This contention requires detailed analysis, and until this is published, we would welcome the taxon E. sancta with some considerable caution. At present, we regard it as a useful 'workname' rather than a proven species."
On a more basic note, some nice Fly Orchid rosettes from North Hampshire on Wednesday:
The Dactylorhiza article has been made available by one of the authors here:
http://www.academia.edu/2134936/Tax...he_British_and_Irish_tetraploid_marsh-orchids
As far as I understood, the situation regarding the Lindisfarne Helleborine population is not straight forward. Whether it is a species or not has been extensively discussed in various literature for the last decade or so, and may also need to include how you define other 'Dune' Helleborine populations around the country.
A couple of quotes on the subject. If you go through the Refs. of these articles you can find most relevant papers and contrary views. There may also be more recent work if you go forward rather than back:
Richard Bateman (2009) What’s in a Name? 1. The Heavy Responsibility of Using a Previously Described Name JOURNAL of the HARDY ORCHID SOCIETY Vol. 6 No. 2 (52) April 2009
58
"...available genetic data would allow recognition of Epipactis sancta as either an unusually poorly differentiated species or an unusually well differentiated subspecies of E. dunensis. Given the relatively equivocal genetic data, the choice should perhaps be made on the basis of careful statistical comparison of the morphology of the Lindisfarne population with other closely related helleborines. Such work has not yet been published, either for E. sancta or for the even more problematic Tyneside populations of E. dunensis."
John Richards & Jane Squirrell (2009) Epipactis leptochila complex in Britain BSBI News 112
"The question of the identity of the plants on Lindisfarne, in North Northumberland, is more problematic. These resembled west coast E. dunensis in their isozyme profile, but displayed an unique chloroplast DNA sequence which was unlikely to have derived from other sequences in this group. Nevertheless, the 'Lindisfarne Helleborine' (E. sancta) is not as distinct from west coast E. dunensis, molecularly, as E. dunensis is from E. leptochila and E. muelleri. If the 'Lindisfarne Helleborine' were morphologically identical to west coast E. dunensis, this would raise the interesting question as to whether two plants of different origins but closely convergent morphology should be regarded as the same or different species. However, it is the opinion of JR that the 'Lindisfarne Helleborine' does not resemble E. dunensis very closely, having in particular a less dense inflorescence with fewer flowers, which is relatively longer in relation to the leafy part of the stem. This contention requires detailed analysis, and until this is published, we would welcome the taxon E. sancta with some considerable caution. At present, we regard it as a useful 'workname' rather than a proven species."
On a more basic note, some nice Fly Orchid rosettes from North Hampshire on Wednesday:
Common names are misleading however.
