BEE ORCHIDS AT THE GROVE

Now first off these Bee Orchids are the ones from the site that I have known about for about 4 years or more but bloody typical the first time I see Bee Orchids in FULL flower ends up being at another site reported to have them.

When I say bloody typical it is because the other site I have visited for about 6 years and is a damn site closer to my home than THIS site and yet I have never seen Bee Orchids there EVER! I had seen Pyramidal Orchids on two separate years of visiting but nothing for the last TWO YEARS!

So I had given up on Bee Orchids being there or they were just in a small area I just could not find, needle in a haystack WOULD BE EASIER!!

Yup, TYPICAL!

Now onto my next snippet of information... you want to keep watching my posts as with very achy and sore leg muscles I did venture back to the Pyramidal Orchid site that now has Spotted and Bee Orchids because it was close and the sun coming out was really bugging me that it would be perfect for more photos and some filming. So out I went!

Now I got a great deal of photos and videos and the videos are uploading to my YouTube account as I type!

I then got a call from my brother and he suggested he pick me up and go to another site as he wanted to see them in flower. YUP, you guessed it I ventured out for a second time to a different area, lol.

Only while we was out I came across something! As my brother is also into nature while out I too him to another site he had never visited, though I wonder if he now realizes he has walked within 50 to 100 meters of it fairly often?!

He was duly impressed with it and mentioned it a couple of times and became quite interested in the details of these Orchids and I answered a tricky question when he asked how you tell them apart as he himself noticed there were many different shades. I was filming while I was answering this question and that one is on my YouTube account with alot of really nice ones on Bee Orchids!

Bare in mind that the light was diminishing and the photos are clear but not as good as normal due to the time of the day!

HOWEVER....while at this site and looking at the various shades I stumbled across something I have not come across before. I did not get a video but I did get some photos and they are clear enough to see alright.

Now to me this was a bit special but in reality I am not sure how special as I am sure there must be others. This should be up within 48 hours so if you are into these British Orchids and like things a bit different I would look out for this post. Oooh and I am sure you will know which one among the dozen or so I am yet to post up, lol. The title should speak for itself.

DAY OF THE ORCHIDS - COMMON SPOTTED ORCHIDS - DACTYLORHIZA FUCHSII (Part 2)

Now here are a series of shots of the Common Spotted Orchid whereby all the flowers of each are white or pretty darn close to white! Well I guess I should call them alba, meaning white.

Oddly it is these I prefer the most of the Dactylorhiza group but I do like the reddish Early Marsh Orchids too.

DAY OF THE ORCHIDS - COMMON SPOTTED ORCHIDS - DACTYLORHIZA FUCHSII (Part 1)

Now here is a full array of Common Spotted Orchids from the same patch in a location I visit.

Now I was hoping for a day like this but I expected them to have stopped flowering but was pleasantly surprised!

Now in this series there are many different plants and you can see a difference in the colours and all of these are only a few feet apart. In all honesty I was under the impression that variation like this would be separated by a few hundred miles at least?!

This is part one and more from the same site in the following post.

DAY OF THE ORCHIDS - THE COMMON TWAYBLADE ORCHID - NEOTTIA OVATA

Well finally!!!

After several years of searching this one down I finally nail it down to a day it is in flower that turns out to be a day of breaking some personal records that still remind me today with very stiff muscles in my legs, lol.

The name Twayblade means two leaves, which are egg shaped and reflected in their species name of ovata which is Latin fir egg. Ovata is referring then to the egg shaped leaves of which there are only two.

Very small green flowers you could easily miss and was right by. Only when you look more closely does that almost unmistakable Orchid look of the flowers stand out.

Hopefully I will get another chance this year to get a bit more on these and never thought to get a video of them on the day, lol dumb-arse.

Oddly I was expecting the two leaves to be flush with the ground due to some pictures I had remembered seeing or very close to it. These leaves were up higher than I actually thought they would be though I do have a theory on it being so much long grass, lol.

I also know for a fact they are spreading to an area where there is NO grass?! In fact I am pretty sure I had already taken photos of younger plants I had wagered were Twayblades and posted them up on here?! These plants were nowhere near these ones, a couple of feet higher elevation, therefore drier, and in a very public accessible area. I have not seen them this year though.

I do really like these Orchids and they are unusual to me in many ways. Inconspicuous until you take a closer look, delicate colours of very slight red edging in jade like flowers and those two leaves. Several years I waited to see these and I am pleased to say they have not disappointed me indeed quite the opposite in fact.

DAY OF THE ORCHIDS - FEW MORE COMMON SPOTTED ORCHIDS

A managed to find some Common Spotted Orchids which were still in full flower unlike the previous ones I had found at a site I have not seen them at in 5 years or more?!

THE DAY OF THE ORCHIDS: A FEW POPPIES

Well there were more of these but I was pushed for time quite literally and down to the wire it turned out.

But I will return for more pictures of non-native Poppies aplenty that were deliberately planted by the authorities, lol.

DAY OF THE ORCHIDS - BEE ORCHID OPHRYS APIFERA (Plant A2)

The second Bee Orchid plant I found at the first location!

I then rushed off on my quest to break my own personal record of the amount of species of Orchids I can get photographs of in flower in a single day?! While on a bike?!?! When the should flower at different times?!?!?!?!

LMAO!

Right now I stated that it would take around ten posts to do all this and you would be forgiven for thinking thi was all that I referred to, but oh no! LOL.

This is just the first SECTION of FOUR SECTIONS broken up into the locatiuons I visited throughout that day.

Will TRY to do one tonight, one tomorrow and one Sunday?! TRY!!