Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Pleione and Orchidaceae => Topic started by: fredg on June 18, 2010, 09:09:15 PM
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My friend Daveyp and I were checking out the local orchid sites again today.
There are quite a lot of photographs, I hope not too many 8)
Site 1 is a site for Dactylorhiza fuchsii and its hybrids
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Site 1 continued
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Site 2 is a small piece of grass between a main road and a disused factory.
Here we have Ophrys apifera
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Site 3 is a traditional managed meadow.
A good place for Dactylorhiza fuchsii /hybrids and Listera ovata.
It was amazing just how many Listera ovata in two distinct colour forms were here.
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Site 4 is a reclaimed muck stack ( slag heap / coal mining waste disposal area).
Here we found Dactylorhiza fuchsii, Dactylorhiza purpurella and their hybrids.
Photo 4d is interesting, an ID would be appreciated.
4g is a fasciated inflorescence.
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Site 4 continued.
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Great sites Fred, interesting to see how Dactylorhiza and Ophrys can behave on disturbed sites.
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the only pics that i can add are.
Chris with loss of habitat in England,old waste tips from the coal industry are turning out to be a fantastic sites for the early colonising orchids.
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fred, fantastic habitat pictures...
cheers
chris
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I previously posted some pictures from a site in Co Durham, NE England of Orchis mascula earlier this year in another section of the forum (http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5295.75). Having made a return visit yesterday to this site (it's a disused quarry, now a nature reserve managed by the Durham Wildlife Trust) on my way home form the Summer Show North, I thought the latest pictures from this site would be better posted here.
Firstly two pictures of Listera (Neottia) ovata.
Then a Dactylorhiza found nearby which I believe to be D. fuchsii.
Finally four pictures of Dactylorhizas from a different part of the site (the base of the old quarry) which I believe to be Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp coccinea. Not the usual reddish colour, I know, but they are small in stature and there is a lot of purple in the stalk of the inflorescence.
I still struggle to identify Dactylorhizas with any confidence. so please feel free to disagree with my identifications.
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the only pics that i can add are.
Chris with loss of habitat in England,old waste tips from the coal industry are turning out to be a fantastic sites for the early colonising orchids.
We call them coal bings.
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Anthony we call them slag heaps, the turning of them into nature reserves was a stroke of genius, from what was huge black marks on the horizon came wildlife havens.
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They have been largely left alone here too, altough I have seen some that smoke and have red hot fissures in them. The one near Candie at the top of the Avon gorge (between Falkirk and Bathgate) comes to mine.
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I thought I'd add a few images taken on a recent trip to Western Scotland about 10 days ago, all of Dactylorhiza maculata. The first group are of a population I came across in Glen Etive; about 150-200 flowering plants, all at the lighter end of the colour range for this species, with one pure white one.
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2 more from a small group of about ten plants near Ardnamurchan Point. These were pinker, and there may have been more, but it was getting late and I was a long way from where I planned to camp.
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This is a trip today (24-06-2010 ) to Site 5.
Again it is a reclaimed coal mining waste disposal area ( muck stack / slag heap / bing ).
The variation in the Dactylorhiza is amazing here.
We believed we were looking at Dactylorhiza fuchsii, Dactylorhiza purpurella and their hybrids.
Please feel free to comment on species etc.
As we were leaving we came across a small colony of Ophrys apifera
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Site 5 continued
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Site 5 continued further
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We then continued on to Site 6.
This is an area of scrub and long grass.
Some of the orchids here were of considerable size.
Purples predominated.
We believe we had here Dactylorhiza purpurella, Dactylorhiza praetermissa, Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp pulchella and their hybrids
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Site 6 continued
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i just thought i would add a quick glimpse of things to come,two photos from a colony of broad leaf helleborines (Epipactis helleborine)we will post more when they are in full flower.
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Fred, the burnet caterpillar and moth (Zygaena sp.) out at the same time either indicates two species or a long fligth period.
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Anthony,
I was surprised to find the caterpillar on a Dactylorhiza as I don't recall this being listed as a food plant.
Unless of course it was also on a field trip. ;D
Also, perhaps it was going for the two winter caterpillar option as it has a fear of flying.
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I know we're now into July, but I thought I'd post a few pictures from last weekend which was still June.
Firstly two orchids from a coastal site just north of Tyneside. Although they look very different, I've come to the conclusion that they are both Dactylorhiza fuchsii, although all the ones in the colony looking like the first example were just coming into flower. The ones like the second example were well into flowering - hybrids perhaps?
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A second batch taken the following day (last Sunday) at another coastal site in mid Northumberland. Again, I think they are all D fuchsii, but one individual plant (photos 5+6) seems to be more vigorous and perhaps a hybrid, but with what I am not sure (perhaps D purpurella?).
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At the second site I found my first ever Ophrys apifera :D. One flower spike only, and when I passed the site again today, I went for another look - couldn't find it. I suspect a nibbling rabbit perhaps.
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At the second site I found my first ever Ophrys apifera :D. One flower spike only, and when I passed the site again today, I went for another look - couldn't find it. I suspect a nibbling rabbit perhaps.
It's a fantastic feeling getting to see something you've never seen before, I'm hoping to find frog orchid this year but I've said that for the last 10 years or so.So cross fingers.
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Every one of these orchids a gem.... so interesting to see the variation.
Congratulations on your O. apifera, Peter.
Good luck with your Frog Orchid hunt, Davey.... just be sure you have your camera with you at all times! ;D
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Davey,
I was lucky enough to see Frog Orchid last year in the Alps (under its old name Coeloglossum viride ;) ), but it helped having a botanical tour leader - see the Pontresina thread: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3870.15. In woodland, like the photo I posted on that thread, they can be tall enough to locate relatively easily. In the open, like the one posted below, they are very short and take some finding -best of luck! :D
(Actually referring to the Pontresina thread reminds me that I did not finish posting a full set of pictures from that trip after my computer failure - I'll try to remedy that over the next week or so)
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Dark red helleborine, Epipactis atrorubens, at gaitbarrows national nature reserve at the end of June.
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and a bargain - two for the price of 10p ::)
At North Walney nature reserve. A tiny form of Dactylorhiza incarnata and a new shoot of Epipactis palustris.
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incredible darren lovely lovely things, the epipactis what a sight