some beauties just flowering

[goatshed]

Just flowering in our acid boggy paddock - several clumps of dactylorhiza maculata (?), and I found two more in the woods behind after a quick look. All pale pink with a variety of markings.

[Ragged Robin]

Dreamy Dactylorhiza  An acid bog sounds an interesting habitat.

[Anthony Darby]

An acid bog sounds an interesting habitat.

Want some of ours Robin?

[goatshed]

Another dact. I found on a second trip out at the weekend, interesting because the beetle (trichodes alvearius?) looks like it has a pollen sac stuck to it's head. Dactylorhizas I just too confusing for me, so I don't know which one, but it was growing in a ditch.

[Peter Maguire]

I visited a nearby site in Co Durham (NE England) known for it's helleborines last weekend hoping to photograph Common Twayblades (Neottia ovata) which also grow there - the Epipactis atrorubens were still below the ground at the mo
ment. The Neottia were present, but probably a couple of weeks off flowering due to the late season. However there was a colony of Orchis mascula in flower. About 100-150 flowering plants, with about the same number again too small to flower.
They were growing in regenerated woodland on the edge of the resrve which is an abandoned limestone quarry, now a nature reserve.
Here's a selection of the colour forms in this colony:

[Peter Maguire]

There were also the first two spikes of a Dactylorhiza just emerging - my first of the year. I find that the more I learn about Dactylorhiza identification, the less I know, but I'm pretty sure this is Dactylorhiza purpurella.

I'll try to revisit this site again alter this month to photograph the Neottia, Anacamptis, Epipactis, Ophyrys, Gymnadenia....

[Peter Maguire]

Just flowering in our acid boggy paddock - several clumps of dactylorhiza maculata (?), and I found two more in the woods behind after a quick look. All pale pink with a variety of markings.

Gill, I'd be inclined to agree that they are Dactylorhiza maculata - that very pale first plant is fabulous 

[Slug Killer]

Calanthe fargesii flowering yesterday. Took a very long time for the buds to open up.

Regards

David

[Maren]

Hi David, your Calanthe is beautiful, so delicate.

[fredg]

I bought this Calopogon tuberosus in the spring of 2007.
The first night in the greenhouse a snail had a gourmet meal, the leaf was skeletised.
3 years with (no flowering ) later, this is what greeted me this morning.

[Hristo]

Fred, well worth the wait! 

[Slug Killer]

Mine died off over the winter but looked slightly different.

[fredg]

How about from this angle David?

[Slug Killer]

Hi Fred,

I was referring more to the colour as mine has orange at the top but your is white. Shame I lost them as they are ever so pretty, especially when there are a few of them flowering.

Regards

David

[fredg]

I was expecting that to colour up as the flower aged.