2013 UK orchids (1 Viewer)

rmielcarek · Jun 11, 2013

This morning, courtesy of Alan (heakl), I had a splendid couple of hours up in the Cotswolds.

As normal with Alan, he turned a few oddities for me to see;

* quite a few trifoliata Common Twayblades - must have found at least a dozen across two small areas
* a couple of trifoliate Greater Butterflies, including this rather odd thing that seemed to have a sort of fasciated stem and ovaries, totally unlike the normal elegant flowing lines.

Thanks Alan.

Rich M

Matthebirder · Jun 11, 2013

Cambs Lizard Orchids still a couple of weeks off if thinking of making a visit. I happened to be at the race course so took an after work walk. Plenty of plants though. Pasqueflowers still hanging on.

muba · Jun 11, 2013

Where to go in Kent?

Hi. This time next week I will have driven down to Dover to catch an early ferry on Wednesday morning. Which means I will have some of the afternoon and evening for a look at some orchids. Just like a bit of advise of where to go to see those in flower next week that are generally restricted to the South East. I have marked as potential sites Queensdown Warren, Sandwich Bay (for the Lizard Orchids), Wye and another site just off the M2 near Chatham. I am open to other suggestions either on the forum or by pm. Two years ago I vistited Parkgate Down for the Monkeys there.

thanks, Steve

heakl · Jun 11, 2013

rmielcarek said:
This morning, courtesy of Alan (heakl), I had a splendid couple of hours up in the Cotswolds.

As normal with Alan, he turned a few oddities for me to see;

* quite a few trifoliata Common Twayblades - must have found at least a dozen across two small areas
* a couple of trifoliate Greater Butterflies, including this rather odd thing that seemed to have a sort of fasciated stem and ovaries, totally unlike the normal elegant flowing lines.

Thanks Alan.

Rich M

Thanks Rich, I'm pleased you enjoyed the trip, I'm also pleased that you told me what an idiot I was with my post that called Common Twayblades, Lesser Twayblades.

Mike, when I make a bloody fool of myself please be a bit more direct in telling me! Sorry to all for any confusion,

Had we had a little more time Rich we could have visited another site for another unusual COMMON Twayblade.

Alan

James Hunter · Jun 11, 2013

muba said:
Hi. This time next week I will have driven down to Dover to catch an early ferry on Wednesday morning. Which means I will have some of the afternoon and evening for a look at some orchids. Just like a bit of advise of where to go to see those in flower next week that are generally restricted to the South East. I have marked as potential sites Queensdown Warren, Sandwich Bay (for the Lizard Orchids), Wye and another site just off the M2 near Chatham. I am open to other suggestions either on the forum or by pm. Two years ago I vistited Parkgate Down for the Monkeys there.

thanks, Steve

Parkgate should be spot on for Monkeys unless we have a heat wave:eek!:
Kent is about 2 weeks behind normal this year. I may do the rounds at the weekend and update accordingly. Sandwich should have a few early Lizards and of course Southern Marsh Orchid. PM me about the site you haven;t named with the name and I may be able to provide an update.

Regards

James

James Hunter · Jun 11, 2013

heakl said:
Nice one James, I reckon you have a rhodochila, have you got a shot of the leaves?

Alan

Hi Alan = yes I have considered Rhodochila but this may be worthy of discussion.., My plant doesn't show an really intense colouration I would expect from hyperchromic variants as the colour looks uniform throughout the flower, but maybe it is at at the less extreme end of the spectrum. However,the leaves were unspotted. Keen to see what others think.

Cheers James

IJS · Jun 11, 2013

Been to a site reported to have burnt orchids present. After along search I managed to find just 6 plants! Took a while but got there in the end...

leptochila · Jun 11, 2013

Chiltern Orchis

A mammoth tour of the premier militaris and simia sites in the Chilterns today was a huge success, though extremely tiring and wet at times. Soldier orchids at their best at Homefield and some huge plants at that. The best showing I've ever seen. The main field is covered with Flys, also in perfect condition.
Not many Monkeys at Hartslock but a ridiculous number of hybrids; very impressive. Some nice big White helleborines in the wood at the top, one with a weird double flower. Managed to spot a tiny (solitary?) bee visiting a Monkey flower. Top points for anyone who can identify it to species level!

Mike

leptochila · Jun 11, 2013

heakl said:
Mike, when I make a bloody fool of myself please be a bit more direct in telling me! Sorry to all for any confusion,

Don't worry Alan, I'll keep my eyes peeled for any more horrific misidentifications

slatts · Jun 12, 2013

muba said:
Hi. This time next week I will have driven down to Dover to catch an early ferry on Wednesday morning. Which means I will have some of the afternoon and evening for a look at some orchids. Just like a bit of advise of where to go to see those in flower next week that are generally restricted to the South East. I have marked as potential sites Queensdown Warren, Sandwich Bay (for the Lizard Orchids), Wye and another site just off the M2 near Chatham. I am open to other suggestions either on the forum or by pm. Two years ago I vistited Parkgate Down for the Monkeys there.

thanks, Steve

Parkgate was Monkey mania at the weekend- plenty to be seen but some starting to go over already. A few greater butterfly too and a lot of fragrants just starting to show a little colour. The man orchids at Darland bank should still be very good. There is nothing showing at Wye yet and its likely that Lizards and Southern marsh at Sandwich will also be late. I visited these two sites on 19th June last year and all the orchids were in full flower, but I think flowering in kent will be two or three weeks late this year. You could always give the bird observatory at sandwich a call - there are SM orchids on site there too 01304 617341 .

Narrow leaf/sword leaf helleborine and hybrid are still in good flower in Hants with a lot of white Helleborine coming into flower now. And this evening's sun really made the several patches of birds nest orchids almost translucent.

Dawn Balmer · Jun 12, 2013

I was hoping to go and look for Fen Orchid at Upton Fen in Norfolk at the weekend. I've not looked for them here before (no idea where to start) but have visited the site many times for dragonflies. Would anyone be willing to PM be with some hints on where to look? Perhaps it will be too early given the slow season - anyone been there in the last week or so to look?

Many thanks
Dawn

heakl · Jun 12, 2013

James Hunter said:
Hi Alan = yes I have considered Rhodochila but this may be worthy of discussion.., My plant doesn't show an really intense colouration I would expect from hyperchromic variants as the colour looks uniform throughout the flower, but maybe it is at at the less extreme end of the spectrum. However,the leaves were unspotted. Keen to see what others think.

Cheers James

Hi James,
I've been shown photographs of flowers that were described to me as "low intensity" rhodochila, very similar to your flower but with even less intense colouration.

Alan

James Hunter · Jun 12, 2013

heakl said:
Hi James,
I've been shown photographs of flowers that were described to me as "low intensity" rhodochila, very similar to your flower but with even less intense colouration.

Alan

Cheers - my previous examples have all been pretty extreme the other way!

rmielcarek · Jun 12, 2013

James Hunter said:
Cheers - my previous examples have all been pretty extreme the other way!

James

there's a photo of a low intensity rhodochila in the October 2007 HOS Journal, page 128 (vol. 4, no. 4 (46))

Rich M

heakl · Jun 12, 2013

Today's oddity, a single leaf Greater Butterfly.

A dozen or so plants in the colony, the only plant that produced a flower spike last year has two leaves, all the rest just have one leaf. The photographed plant is the only flowering plant in the colony this year.

Alan

P.S. I didn't find any plants with no leaves.

Ghostly Vision · Jun 12, 2013

heakl said:
Today's oddity, a single leaf Greater Butterfly.

A dozen or so plants in the colony, the only plant that produced a flower spike last year has two leaves, all the rest just have one leaf. The photographed plant is the only flowering plant in the colony this year.

Alan

P.S. I didn't find any plants with no leaves.

Do I not see a second leaf pointing towards the observer, slightly higher up the stem?

James - not sure rhodochila has defined limits on extent or intensity of col our. These spurious vars tend to have rather generic descriptions, methinks.

Sean

muba · Jun 12, 2013

muba said:
Hi. This time next week I will have driven down to Dover to catch an early ferry on Wednesday morning. Which means I will have some of the afternoon and evening for a look at some orchids. Just like a bit of advise of where to go to see those in flower next week that are generally restricted to the South East. I have marked as potential sites Queensdown Warren, Sandwich Bay (for the Lizard Orchids), Wye and another site just off the M2 near Chatham. I am open to other suggestions either on the forum or by pm. Two years ago I vistited Parkgate Down for the Monkeys there.

thanks, Steve

Many thanks for the replies folks. Much appreciated

Ghostly Vision · Jun 12, 2013

childhood memories said:
I love this site – without it, and the information I have got from it over the last 5 years – directly or indirectly as PMs from members of the forum – my life would be much poorer. I would not have had so many of those amazing, indescribable moments looking at a field full of heath spotteds or kneeling down at a coral root buried under a ground willow.
As orchid addicts we have a common dilemma. We know orchids often inhabit very fragile and often extremely sensitive environments. Ultimately the best thing to do might be for us all to agree not visit them at all (However we all know that is not going to happen). We all want to visit those magic sites but are not always as keen for others to do so.
Members I have met on sites all seem to share the care and sensitivity to the environments and I am sure do all they can to minimise any negative impact that they may have. Sometime enthusiasts may occasionally end up acting with a little less caution than we might feel is wise – either in where they tread - or what they say. If this happens and we feel someone individually has acted rashly would it be more sensitive to address this via a PM rather than directly on the public forum? If I ever overstep the mark I would much rather have someone say it to me personally on an e-mail or PM rather than on an open forum.
If any one does question us about a site we should be confident enough to decide ourselves on how safe we feel it is to give information privately – do we feel the person will treat it with respect and confidentiality. I have asked for information in the past only to be told “ sorry it is a private site” and been perfectly happy with that. Other times I have been given very useful information which has saved me a wasted 200mile journey.
I am not saying that we should not debate openly on the forum issues such as how we act, what information we put out publically, etc but I feel uncomfortable about people being singled out or is this just my age and the rest of you are much less sensitive to what is said on the internet?
CM

Well said, Phil.

AdrianW · Jun 13, 2013

Southern Marsh looking great in Surrey at the moment, Southern Marsh x Common Spot hybrids (D. x grandis) also looking good.

James Hunter · Jun 13, 2013

Ghostly Vision said:
Do I not see a second leaf pointing towards the observer, slightly higher up the stem?

James - not sure rhodochila has defined limits on extent or intensity of col our. These spurious vars tend to have rather generic descriptions, methinks.

Sean

Cheers Sean - as rhodochila is said to be hyperchromic I have always expected them to show a really intense pigmentation in the centre of the flower at least. The Bucks plant looked quite dapper and refined compared to my previous experience of the var

Cheers

James

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