A fine Bee Orchid, with two flower spikes.
One of our readers requested some more photos of the orchids in the orchard, so here they are. The long summer grass is making photographing them more and more difficult. For some reason my camera tends to focus on some wimbly wombly piece of grass waving around intermittently in front of the orchid, and fails to focus crisply on the lovely flowers. Also, the Pyramidal Orchid is in quite deep shade, under one of the sour cherries.This Bee Orchid is almost white rather than
pink, a not uncommon variation.
pink, a not uncommon variation.
A perfect specimen of Pyramidal Orchid.
Susan
3 comments:
That pyramidal orchid is pretty remakable. How long will these species flower?
Must be such fun to go searching
through the grass for these
beauties. I think I'm partial
to the Bees because they so
closely resemble a cymbidium.
Have you ever picked them to
see how long they would last?
Of course, you're no doubt more
interested in letting them go to
seed.
Diogenes: Each will flower for a month to 6 weeks.
Sheila: The Pyramidal's are completely protected, so it is illegal to pick them even if you are the landowner. I've never personally picked an orchid in the wild, but I have occasionally come across ones that have clearly been cut by someone and dropped. I've taken them home and put them in water. On the whole they are not very successful in water. Violet Limodores don't open, Monkey's wilt. There is a problem here with people picking Long-leaved Helleborines because they look like Lily of the Valley. Manuela from the Natural Heritage Conservation unit tells me that they just wilt in water. I suspect Bee orchids are a bit more robust. I've accidently bent or stood on them occasionally and they take no notice and continue flowering.
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