Orchid spotting
Now is the time to go looking for wild orchids. In fact any time from May to September you may find an orchid flowering.
There are 57 species of orchid in the UK, most of which are pollinated by insects, but to confuse the issue of identification orchids can have immense variability even within species as they hybridise readily, with the resulting plant displaying different characteristics from the parent plants.
Considering some of their rarity, as a plant family orchids are incredibly successful, with somewhere in the region of 28,000 species, they make up nearly 10% of all plant species worldwide.
The seeds of orchids are tiny and do not store enough food to grow on their own, so they have symbiotic relationships with specific mycorrhizal fungi in the soil upon which the early stages of their growth are entirely dependent for all of their nutrients until they are able to grow leaves and photosynthesise, in turn supplying specific sugars called exudates to the fungi. Some orchids like the bird’s nest orchid (Neottia nidus-avis) with its caramel coloured flowers and no leaves or green chlorophyll are entirely dependent on soil fungi for their nutrition throughout their lifetime. These grow in shady beech woods and can be found on hazel coppice. Not that I’ve seen one yet, though I'm keeping my eyes peeled!
For this reason, buying a packet of orchid seeds and scattering them in your garden is unlikely to yield results, but by changing the cultivation of parts of the garden and leaving areas unmown for a while in the spring / summer you may be really lucky and have one or some pop up.
Grass verges, meadows and wood pastures are probably your best bet for spotting orchids, with the giveaway name of the common spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) being one of the most likely that you will see. The scented flowers of this orchid are pale pink with darker spots and stripes on their three lobed lips (lower decorative landing pad petal) and are highly attractive to day-flying moths.
That’s the tongue twister of the month sorted! - Three lobed lipped lower landing pad petals.
Another that you might see is the pyramidal orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis), this is a slightly smaller, more densely packed flower, or inflorescence I should say as it contains about 100 individual deep pink / purple flowers.
I’ve been lucky enough to see both of these on my walks with Stevie and am keeping an eye out for other species too.
Do let me know if you’ve seen any or anything unusual in your garden or out and about!
It goes without saying that digging up any plant in the wild is illegal (without the landowners permission), this whole area of legislation is pretty complicated so you could find yourself on the wrong side of the law for picking flowers also, with the orchids its best to admire them and leave them be.
Image by Denise Wolters from Pixabay
