Common spotted orchids on the Roadside Nature Reserve just across the road from my office. It is spectacular in July; even driving past you can see the pink flower spikes of the orchids.
When I was growing up, I thought that orchids were exotic flowers, beloved of Victorian ladies in glasshouses and native only to tropical rainforests. It was a revelation to discover that they are found worldwide and that my home county of Kent held more varieties than anywhere else in the UK.
You have to look more closely to appreciate the flowers of our native orchids, but once you do, you will find that they are every bit as enchanting as the showy specimens you might buy from a florist.
The complexity of orchid flowers is due to their intricate relationships with insects, the structures having evolved to tempt insect visitors, sometimes even luring them with the false promise of a mate, in order to achieve pollination.
Darwin was fascinated by the evolutionary relationship between orchids and insects and it is thought that Kent Wildlife Trust’s Downe Bank nature reserve is the Orchis Bank he used to visit to study this phenomenon and that he immortalised in the conclusion of the Origin of the Species.
Although I didn’t need to leave Kent to try out the next of The Wildlife Trusts’ Top UK Wildlife Experiences, traveling in the north of the U.K. gave me the chance to see some species I’d not come across before, and practice my budding botanical skills.
Heath spotted orchids were dotted in the grass around our campsite on the Outer Hebrides. I soon discovered that these acid-loving orchids are abundant in the heaths, bogs and moors of the uplands.
The Northern Marsh Orchid, as it’s name suggests, grows in Scotland, Wales and Northern England, taking the place of the Southern Marsh Orchid I’m more familiar with.
The fuzzy spiral of tiny white bells give this orchid its name. Creeping lady’s-tresses (Goodyera repens) is only found in ancient Scots pine woodlands. I found this on an early morning walk through woodland beside the campsite at Nairn.
This gorgeous Marsh Helleborine (Epipactis palustris) was growing in the dunes on Holy Island.
My hurried photography doesn’t do justice to this Twayblade (Listera ovata). Its spike of subtle yellow-green flowers, with a long narrow forked lower petal, rises from a single pair of broad oval leaves which give this plant its name.
As I’m still learning, I’m not entirely sure about this one, which Geoff photographed at Lindisfarne. I think it might be a Common Spotted Orchid hybrid – any advice welcome.
Thank you for this lovely post, the narrative and photos are fab! I’m starting to learn more about native British orchids and find your blog to be just wonderful. Feel free to visit my blog – I’m hoping to expand my knowledge and post more about native species in 2017.
The only way is wildlife 
Thank you for this lovely post, the narrative and photos are fab! I’m starting to learn more about native British orchids and find your blog to be just wonderful. Feel free to visit my blog – I’m hoping to expand my knowledge and post more about native species in 2017.
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