A DAY WITH ORCHIDS: BEE ORCHID MASSES

Well here is a whole sequence of Bee Orchid shots I got at a location I have for Pyramidal Orchids I had been visiting for 6 years?!

Never before have I seen a single solitary Bee Orchid?! Not in the last two years have I spotted Pyramidal Orchids either?! Though I have seen them there on two separate years!

When I go back to investigate two days later I end up finding around 70 to 80 Bee Orchids but not the 10,000 that was stated to be there! I bump into a poor chap with a mask on as he was a Hayfever sufferer and also a Wild Orchid enthusiast! First time I have found anyone at this location looking for Wild Orchids!

We have a good chat and he himself states that he had not seen any Bee Orchids for a few years and I tell him I have visited the site for 6 years now and this is the first time I have seen them! He is somewhat surprised at this and we chat about why they fail to appear for a few years and the come out in force as they seem to have done this year.

He tells me of a patch of a dozen he just saw and says he has seen about fifity. But we are on one side of a path I have ner really investigate before and I myself just come from the other side of the path were I had come across a few dozen of them and he was unaware that there were any found there!

After he departs I then go looking for the patch of a dozen Bee Orchids he had mentioned and found another patch of four. Then I stumble across a patch of 32 bloody Orchids and forgot I had seen a patch nearby which meant it was 36 Bee Orchids. Walking back to my bike which was laid down in its side I then realise I had forgotten about another patch a bit further away but where my bike lay. Though about 30 metres away form the large patch that made it 40 Bee Orchid along a 30 metre line!

I had also probably seen another dozen or two in other sections on that side, some I had pointed out to the chap when we first bumped into each other. SO about 65 approximately and I had seen a couple of dozen at least on the other side of the path. Ths chap was unaware there were any located on the other side and so we realised that there were indeed many dozens showing themselves this year.

I actually do now realise it was indeed around 100 Bee Orchids I had seen that day!!

BEE ORCHIDS AT THE GROVE (Part 2)

OOPS!!

Here are more pictures of my original site for Bee Orchids I have often posted pictures of but never in flower until now, lol.

It is fairly shaded for large period of the day so lighting for photography not always great!!

Also there are a series of pictures that I took around 8pm in the evening at this location and I think they will stand out too?! But the point of it all is to log photos of the Orchids at these locations to show how bad or how well they are doing!

I will also in time work out what it is that makes them tick and what encourages them to flourish or to not show up at all! But this is due to the fact that it is NOT just Orchids and the things that are OBVIOUSLY connected to them. No I will notice other things that many will overlook. For instance I noted many things other than Orchids that were doing quite well and realised there was a possible link to the plants and I will get to that at some point. I should have taken more pictures really but I had noted a fair few of these before my brain made the link from it to the Orchids.

Now I will point out that this site for Bee Orchids does not possess what I had noted at the other site!

I will now explain that THIS SITE is absolutely TINY! It is confined to an area from around 3 to 5 square metres!

The other site they are spread over several hundred metres and I still consider that other area to be small, this one is MINISCULE!! There was another patch of them nearby but they have not appeared since I have visited the site and they have not appeared this year but I will keep an eye out for them. I know the EXACT SPOT right down to the square foot they are in because wildlife photographers looking for Dragonflies and Damselflies explained that several years before they see several and pointed at the patch.

One chap on the Internet stated on his site that he had been there about 4 years prior to me finding it and he had seen a single solitary Bee Orchid! He obviously did not know about the other spot nearby and his main objective to being there may not have been the Orchids anyway?!

As for me I have had a real pleasurable time doing this, this year and am over the moon with joy at seeing all these and in good numbers too, even if not the 10,000 Bee Orchids they stated and if they stated there was just a thousand I would ask them what drugs they are on!

This site I would say that they amount to 50 but in close quarters to each other. The site much further away could harbour a couple of hundred and I did a thorough search and I would say I spotted way over 60 plants and I would guess around 80 give or take a couple.

One area had around 40 plus alone on one side of a path I did not expect to see them?! I bumped into a poor soul who himself was passionate about Orchids but was a hay-fever sufferer and had a mask on?! He said he had seen about 50 and he was unaware of the parts I was first seeing them where I had seen over a couple of dozen at least.

MAGIC BRITISH ORCHIDS

Magically appearing Orchids where there were NONE before.

There are supposedly 3 or 4 species of Orchid at this spot but the only one I am interested in spotting is the Common Twayblade. Supposedly the commonest of all in this park I have yet to see a single flower.

I did find a couple of plants last year that looked like they could be them, or the year before, but did not find them again.

Now that I have looked at the pictures I took, difficult when not in flower, I had though these were Marsh Orchids of the Dactylorhiza genus but now realise they look more like Bee Orchids, not listed as being present, while one likely not an Orchid at all and I am not about to dig them up looking for their tubers, lol.

 

Despite doing a good impression the star like pattern arrangement of the leaves I have now noted suggests this is NOT one of the Marsh Orchids?! Still I will keep a check on them nevertheless.

They are also not Twayblades with have round spoon shaped leaves and only TWO, lol.

As a matter of fact all the Orchids I am familar with so far have a bilateral shape. Could possible be Pyramidal Orchids I cannot remember what the leaves look like, lol.

Whatever these and the others turn out to be they was not there last year or the year before.

Theses look far better than the other Orchids I have visited.