Terrestrial orchids 2020

[aldo]

Dienia ophrydis (J.Koenig) Seidenf.

[ruweiss]

Dactylorhiza x foliorella

[Claire Cockcroft]

Dactylorhizas have seeded all over with many variations in leaf and flower.  Here are a few examples.

[ashley]

Fine plants above.

Disa x kewensis (D. uniflora x D. tripetaloides) sharing with Pinguicula grandiflora

[Gail]

Bee orchids at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, enjoying the short grass around the helipad and currently protected from the mowers.

[WSGR]

Stunning Bee orchids. Magical!

[shelagh]

Yesterday Brian and I went off to Nob End which is quite near us looking for orchids.  Getting on for 100 years ago this used to be a spoil tip for a chemical works and it has been a good place for orchids ever since. I am probably going to bore the pants off you orchid experts because I think all these are Marsh orchids but I'm going to show you every one we found.

[shelagh]

I am always amazed that they manage to fight their way through the undergrowth. This year most of them were under 5 inches tall which I put down to the dry spring.

[shelagh]

We found plants with spotted and foliage and without. I took the pics with my camera which I don't usually do but I was glad of it when it started raining since the lens doesn't get wet.
As you can see the second one in this group is beginning to go over.

[shelagh]

As you can see there is quite a variety of shades.

[shelagh]

Towards the end of our foray we found two specimens which were closer to a foot in height. 27a and 28a. After this we made a swift retreat as we and the orchids were dripping.

[Maggi Young]

Wow! Shelagh, just  WOW!!!!

[shelagh]

Thanks Maggi.

[Roma]

Amazing, Shelagh!

I have a small colony and two small clumps of spotted heath orchid (Dactylorhyza maculata) in the wood at the back of the ponies fields.  In the roadside field near my house there is a large and growing patch of northern marsh (Dactylorhyza purpurella) but it is an escape from my garden.  I don't know where the nearest natural colony is.
I've been visited by the black death in the garden so don't seem to have many growing in the soil just now though there are plenty as interlopers in pots.

[Roma]

I've no idea where this one could have come from.  It is in a pot with another two purple ones and was sitting outside the greenhouse door.  When I am repotting and find an orchid tuber I usually pot it separately often more than one in a pot.  I don't know if it was in one of my own pots or if it came with something I had bought.  The flower looks ok for Dactylorhyza purpurella and the leaves are unspotted but I haven't seen any record of a white one.  There are some nearly white D. maculata with minimally spotted leaves in a wood about half a mile away but I have never seen a pure white one.  I'll enjoy it while it lasts anyway and hope it survives and multiplies.