Sunday 7 July 2013

Orchids all around us

Sunday 7th July 2013

The orchid season around our local patch as just about peaked up here in Lancashire and it's another excellent year but about 3 weeks later than normal owing to the late spring. First a few shots of my back garden from an angle I've never viewed it from before. I've been removing the lower branches of a tree that outgrown it's position before it's felled later in the summer.



Over the years orchids have colonized the garden and on this years count there's about 100 scattered around the garden they're mostly Common Spotted but a couple of Marsh Orchids (hybrids) have appeared next to the pond.


                                      Marsh Orchid (hybrid?)


                                   Common Spotted Orchids  

Up in the Fields near to our house a good show of Marsh Orchids and common Spotted Orchids and many  hybrids.

   





On the local industrial estate Bee Orchids are growing on the lawned areas surrounding the units where the grass hasn't been mowed.


                     

Finally an unusual orchid has appeared on the local nature reserve and the jury are still out trying to identify it.




3 comments:

  1. Lovely pictures...please put in your post when you come to a conclusion as to the identity of the mystery orchid...it is very attractive:))

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  2. I am sure the botanists will be debating this the BSBI are always helpful and have never let me down. Looking forward to the naming.

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  3. Jeff & Sue Hodgson kindly pointed out that the unusual orchid on the local nature reserve was probably the Common Spotted Orchid (sub-Species) Dactylorhiza fuchsii Var. rhodochila. A picture almost identical to my photo is shown on page 108 in Wild Guides.... Britain's Orchids by David Lang.
    Thanking Jeff & Sue for the information.

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