British Orchids

I’m so excited by this one, the Early spider orchid Ophrys sphegodes. I’ve never seen these before so I decided to make the effort. I drove 3 hours down to the Dorset coast, Durleston Country Park on the edge of Poole harbour. This is one of a very few UK sites for this orchid. It only grows on the south coast, in Kent and Sussex as well as Dorset, and there is a very large population at Samphire Hoe on a reserve made from a huge spoil heap created by the excavation of the channel tunnel.

It is closely related to the bee orchid and they share a pollination technique. they look, feel and even smell like a female Andrena bee. When the male tries to mate with the flower, he collects the pollen and then transfers it as he tries it on again with the next flower. It is an amazing feat of mimicry.
They are the most charming little flowers, only about 10cm tall with their heads bobbing in the sea breeze. I’d say they are well worth a long drive.

Early purple orchid (Orchis mascula) is the first orchid to flower in my home county, Herefordshire. I live at the edge of the Woolhope Dome, which is a calcareous bump in the red clay of the county and I am lucky to have some lovely reserves and orchid sites nearby.

On a Sunday evening in late April I went out to see what I could find. Lea and Pagets Wood had dozens in flower alongside wood anemone and bluebells just starting to open.

Then I went up to one of the small wildflower meadows on the Woolhope Dome and there they were in amongst a mass of cowslips.
Sometimes they have spotted leaves and sometimes plain green. When they are growing in a meadow they are easily confused with the Green Winged Orchid, especially if it is a plain leaved plant, and you need to look closely at the petals to see which it is.

I’m really happy to find my first orchid in my own garden. This is a common spotted orchid coming up in one of the small meadow patches that I sowed about 5 years ago. There are quite a few, it’s great to see them there