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Tag Archives: British native orchids

Southern marsh-orchids

16 Wednesday Jun 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

British native orchids, British orchids, Dactylorhiza praetermissa, Grangemoor Park, native orchids, Southern Marsh-orchid

Mostly, I only see four species of orchid: Early purple, Common spotted, Bee and Pyramidal, so I find it tricky identifying other species. And the fact that many species of orchid hybridise with each other also complicates the identification picture. So, when a Twitter pal tagged me for help identifying a Southern marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa) I couldn’t assist, but decided to try to find some for myself to learn more about their appearance. I found one specimen during a recent visit to Aberbargoed (though not at the grasslands) and several at Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park.

The first thing I realised is that you can’t rely on colour. I found another orchid that looked the perfect shade of purple but didn’t have the right markings – perhaps a hybrid of Southern marsh and Common spotted. The two key things for Southern marsh-orchids, it seems to me, in non-botanist speak, are that the upper petals all reach skywards, like a person holding their arms in the air, and that the larger, lower petal has two cascades of spots that sometimes merge in to one but always fall in the centre of the petal, not spreading outwards. I’m sure there’s a more succinct way to phrase that but I think it’s best we each have our own ways to remember key points.

210616 southern marsh-orchid (2)
210616 southern marsh-orchid (3)
210616 southern marsh-orchid (4)

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Early-purple orchids

07 Friday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, wildflowers

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Tags

British native orchids, British orchids, Early-purple orchid, native orchids, Orchis mascula, Spring colour

The 2021 orchid season has begun!

210507 early purple orchids (1)

In my local area, the first orchids to bloom are the Early-purples (Orchis mascula) and this week I was delighted to find them in two local areas, one a nature reserve, the other a woodland I regularly visit.

210507 early purple orchids (2)
210507 early purple orchids (3)
210507 early purple orchids (4)

The Plantlife website notes that there is a legend the ‘Early Purple Orchid grew under Christ’s cross, and the leaves were splattered with the blood of Christ, have resulted in the names Gethesmane and cross flower.’

210507 early purple orchids (5)

The website also lists some of this orchid’s other vernacular names: ‘adder’s meat, bloody butchers, red butchers, goosey ganders, kecklegs, kettle cases and kite’s legs’. Personally, I just call them beautiful!

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A triumph of nature

28 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, parks, wildflowers

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Tags

British flora, British native orchids, British orchids, Broad-leaved helleborine, Epipactis helleborine, orchid, terrestrial orchid

These Broad-leaved helleborines (Epipactis helleborine) are a little past their best but I just had to post about them, partly because I love all of Britain’s native orchids and partly because these are survivors. You would usually find these terrestrial orchids growing in clearings or along path edges in forests and woodlands but these particular plants are growing on the edges of a former rubbish tip, now urban park, in Cardiff. Despite humans dumping thousands of tons of rubbish on their habitat, then covering that over with imported rocks and soil, laying tarmac paths and planting cultivated plants like cotoneaster, these helleborines have somehow survived. The idea of that made my day!

170728 Broad-leaved helleborine (7)
170728 Broad-leaved helleborine (5)
170728 Broad-leaved helleborine (2)
170728 Broad-leaved helleborine (4)
170728 Broad-leaved helleborine (3)
170728 Broad-leaved helleborine (1)
170728 Broad-leaved helleborine (6)

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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