Dactylorhiza ruthei (M.SCHULZE ex RUTHE) SOÓ has been described in 1897 by RUDOLF RUTHE himself, based on one occurrence at the fortress at Osterkopf near Swinemünde (Swinoujscie), in the eastern part of the island of Usedom, now Polish. Already since many decades the plants are no longer existing there.
1997 HELMUT PPRESSER found plants which were assumed to be Dactylorhiza ruthei since then at Peenemünde in the northwestern part of the island of Usedom, 45 km from Swinemünde. In 2012 in his article in J.Eur.Orch.44(4):693-714 WOLFGANG WUCHERPFENNIG compared the relatively many still existing herbarium plants from Swinemünde with the living plants from Peenemünde and found so significant differences that he described the ones from Peenemünde newly as species Dactylorhiza pomeranica. Differences among others are the not existing lip drawing of D. pomeranica, the shape of the flower, the length of the inflorescence, and the arrangement of the leaves. Both species are assumed to be stabilized hybrid populations from Dactylorhiza fuchsii s.l. and Dactylorhiza incarnata s.l.