Sweet Woodruff is one of the most typical of woodland plants, growing chiefly in beechwoods, but also found in hornbeam/oak forests, mixed beech/fir forests, and, randomly, in cultivated spruce forest. It is a Eurasian plant, very adaptable to a wide range of soil acidity, which serves as an indicator of very fertile soil with good chemical and physical properties.

Present in Europe’s forests are three very similar and related species, although the name Wild Strawberry is applied only to one – Fragaria vesca L., which probably also has the largest area of distribution. It grows in open broad-leaved as well as coniferous forests, chiefly in glades and alongside forest rides, on shrubby banks and in forest margins from lowlands to fairly high elevations. This is also one of the first plants to gain a foothold on bared skeletal soils.

Nowadays, however, there are few places where it is still found, apart from a few locations in Germany, such as the Brandenburg and Mecklenburg regions, Rugen, and parts of Southern Germany, while in Britain it is known from one (secret) locality.

It is interesting to note that the first ‘exotic’ orchid brought to Europe around 1635 was the North American C spectabile Salisb., also classified as C reginae Walt or Queen’s Slipper.

The Slipper Orchid is a perennial orchid, 15-50 cm high, with a short-segmented creeping root. The stem bears up to four large flowers. Of the three outer perianth segments the two lateral ones are joined to form a single long double-toothed segment; of the three inner segments the two lateral ones are widespread, lanceolate, and coloured brownish red, whereas the third inner segment forms a pouch-like lip which is pale yellow with red dots inside. The fruit is a unicapsular capsule splitting by six valves. The seeds are very tiny.

The pollination of orchidaceous plants is interesting. Most are dependant on a certain species or group of insects. In the case of the Slipper Orchid it is a bee of the genus Andrena which does the pollinating.