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2014 UK Orchids (6 Viewers)
- Thread starter LizandDave
- Start date
Ghostly Vision
Well-known member
The characterful Lesser Twayblade showed how difficult it can be to find yesterday in Powys.
Most of the books will show you pictures like the first one (but usually better), but very few will show you how easily it hides in amongst the heather!
Most of the books will show you pictures like the first one (but usually better), but very few will show you how easily it hides in amongst the heather!
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Gareth Stamp
Well-known member
Cors Geirch, Lleyn Peninsula
Visited Cors Geirch this weekend whilst visiting the in-laws.
Disappointingly many orchids had already gone over. Here is a list of what I found:
8 pugsley's marsh orchid (only 3 still looking ok)
6 early marsh orchid (incarnata) already over
22 lesser butterfly orchids (generally ok)
2 common spotted orchid
200+ heath spotted orchid
20 marsh helleborine (tight bud)
Also bog bean, bog pimpernel, bog asphodel, round leaved sundew, marsh cinquefoil.
Visited Cors Geirch this weekend whilst visiting the in-laws.
Disappointingly many orchids had already gone over. Here is a list of what I found:
8 pugsley's marsh orchid (only 3 still looking ok)
6 early marsh orchid (incarnata) already over
22 lesser butterfly orchids (generally ok)
2 common spotted orchid
200+ heath spotted orchid
20 marsh helleborine (tight bud)
Also bog bean, bog pimpernel, bog asphodel, round leaved sundew, marsh cinquefoil.
Fly/bee A303
Here's the fly/bee on the A303 last saturday. Traffic belts by at 80 miles an hour, it's a really noisy site at this road cutting. But I've been coming to see these hybrids for 10 years now and it's a couple of weeks later than I normally come. But there is still one nice looking plant left with a couple of flowers to come. I saw 6 plants here last year but I could only see signs of two this year. Coming later than usual though means I got to see a really great display of large pyramidals which I hadn't seen before.
Here's the fly/bee on the A303 last saturday. Traffic belts by at 80 miles an hour, it's a really noisy site at this road cutting. But I've been coming to see these hybrids for 10 years now and it's a couple of weeks later than I normally come. But there is still one nice looking plant left with a couple of flowers to come. I saw 6 plants here last year but I could only see signs of two this year. Coming later than usual though means I got to see a really great display of large pyramidals which I hadn't seen before.
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Red Helleborine
Red helleborine sunday afternoon. No plants came up here last year after previous years when up to four plants flowered. Really good to see one in flower again this year. And a massive thankyou to Roger who puts in a great deal of time as a voluntary warden looking after them.www.bbowt.org.uk
Red helleborine sunday afternoon. No plants came up here last year after previous years when up to four plants flowered. Really good to see one in flower again this year. And a massive thankyou to Roger who puts in a great deal of time as a voluntary warden looking after them.www.bbowt.org.uk
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Probably should be fine. Take a pair of shorts and a towel and be prepared to get wet. I generally go barefoot. But BE CAREFUL before you have spotted one. Once you have got your eye in you will see the others but bog orchids are tiny little things.
DEREK CHARLES
Well-known member
I cannot deal with any PM's about this. All enquiries will have to be made to BBOWT. There is an active link on my post.
Benjamin Ofield
Well-known member
prevell
Member
New Forest Bog Orchid
It is more than 30 years since I went bog-yomping in the New Forest for rarities, including the Bog Orchid. The scene might have changed, but I would never ever dream of yomping barefoot. I wore wellington boots with long trousers over the outside. So did my wife.
Why? Because of the Adders.
On one memorable day in June we counted 14 Adders in one bog sunbathing on top of the shrubs. I also carried a 6 feet Ash shepherds crook to smack any that became aggressive. None did because we moved very quietly and slowly. Bear in mind that it is their home and they know it a lot better than you ever will.
Softly,softly catchee Bog Orchid:eek!:
Peter
It is more than 30 years since I went bog-yomping in the New Forest for rarities, including the Bog Orchid. The scene might have changed, but I would never ever dream of yomping barefoot. I wore wellington boots with long trousers over the outside. So did my wife.
Why? Because of the Adders.
On one memorable day in June we counted 14 Adders in one bog sunbathing on top of the shrubs. I also carried a 6 feet Ash shepherds crook to smack any that became aggressive. None did because we moved very quietly and slowly. Bear in mind that it is their home and they know it a lot better than you ever will.
Softly,softly catchee Bog Orchid:eek!:
Peter
muba
Well-known member
Having finally found some Lesser Twayblades I can only echo GV's comments. When we finally found one, we could appreciate the small size of these, and the difficulty of finding them lessened. My advice to those looking for these is to concentrate on looking for those two small round leaves. These stand out better against the background, including sphagnum, than the actual flowers. I hope my photos show the size of the plants; compare to the sphagnum.
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Thanks for that Peter. I wish I wish I had seen an adder (or a nadder in Olde Englishe) in any of the bogs I've been to, but in ten years I have never seen one. In the bogs I look there are not a lot of shrubs so I guess nowhere dry to hide for the
adders.
muba
Well-known member
Nice display of Common Spotteds
On the A483 between Newtown and Llandrindod Wells, about 1½ miles north of the hamlet of Dolfur, look out for a good display of CSOs. Nothing special apart from several hundred crammed into one bit of road verge. I have travelled this road since the mid 80's and only seen them once before in 2011. As this corner has been realigned it may be that soil with seed was imported there and the orchids found it to be their liking.
Worth a stop if you are passing.
On the A483 between Newtown and Llandrindod Wells, about 1½ miles north of the hamlet of Dolfur, look out for a good display of CSOs. Nothing special apart from several hundred crammed into one bit of road verge. I have travelled this road since the mid 80's and only seen them once before in 2011. As this corner has been realigned it may be that soil with seed was imported there and the orchids found it to be their liking.
Worth a stop if you are passing.
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Personally I wouldn't "wade in" in search of Bog Orchids; I think the accidental trample risk is just too high - they're so small they're almost invisible until you get your eye in. If possible get someone to show you exactly where they are. They really are idiotically small. Smaller than the Musks in my experience...
Attached is a shot of a few in habitat; to show just how small they are. There is one absolutely dead centre; but it's almost impossible to see it without zooming in first! The yellow spikes are Bog Asphodel, which are bordering on 5x taller...
Attached is a shot of a few in habitat; to show just how small they are. There is one absolutely dead centre; but it's almost impossible to see it without zooming in first! The yellow spikes are Bog Asphodel, which are bordering on 5x taller...
lizard orchid
Well-known member
No adder would become agressive. It is an animal that is fully protected by law. Adders will wander off, they avoid people. It is illegal to kill them. Adders are more scared of you than you of them. Please do not kill any adders. We had idiot people/dog walkers kill a female this year. I wish I had caught them.
Brian Laney Northamptonshire county recorder for reptiles and amphibians.
I recognise that bit of sodden ground Adrian. Sundews, bog asphodels. You walk on it much more gingerly when you are barefoot. In my experience though they change their position in that particular bog from year to year. Never exactly in the same place so unless you have been there in the previous few days it's likely to be the previous year so you won't know exactly where they are.
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Yup! The really embarrassing part was that I started my search there an hour and a half earlier, but flat out failed to see them! I'd forgotten just how small they were. It was only when I knelt down to look at something else, that I suddenly started to see them again.
Clearly I should have gone to Specsavers
Bog Orchid pic from last Wednesday, 18/06/2014. Apologies for the watermarks, but it's either those, or no pics...
Frog Orchids looking good in Surrey now. One finished(!), a number at their best, and a number still in bud.
Reminder: Ticks and Lyme Disease. Please remember to tuck your trousers into your socks, and wear some insect repellent - the ticks are very definitely out and biting. I came home with three on Sunday (a new personal record; yay). A few days ago my father apparently came back with one too...
Be on the lookout for the bullseye shaped rash after a bite; it's an indicator that you might have Lyme Disease. Lack of the rash doesn't guarantee you don't have it, but the rash is reasonably certain to show you do. If you have the rash, go to the quack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease
Frog Orchids looking good in Surrey now. One finished(!), a number at their best, and a number still in bud.
Reminder: Ticks and Lyme Disease. Please remember to tuck your trousers into your socks, and wear some insect repellent - the ticks are very definitely out and biting. I came home with three on Sunday (a new personal record; yay). A few days ago my father apparently came back with one too...
Be on the lookout for the bullseye shaped rash after a bite; it's an indicator that you might have Lyme Disease. Lack of the rash doesn't guarantee you don't have it, but the rash is reasonably certain to show you do. If you have the rash, go to the quack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease
16 :eek!: Were you in search of Orchids in Colorado, or overseas? That's dedication, wherever you caught them!
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