Bee Orchids!

Found at last :D :D Searching for years and today was the day :D May seem odd to you, but its been a Holy Grail for me :D I found the first one by the roadside and the second on an old World War II airfield at the highest point in Essex.




It may not look like a bee to you, but to a randy male bee it does. He copulates with it and in doing so, gets pollen all over his hairy back which he takes to another flower and fertilises it.

Nearby there were hundreds of Common Spotted Orchids and these Pyramidal Orchids.

 

they are lovely i thought the bee orchid looked like a frog!!I have a good imageination!!

 

I used to know a chap had them growing in his lawn (I kid you not). He had a fairly relaxed attitude to lawn upkeep thankfully. It was in Cambridgeshire though I forget exactly where.

 

Yes I can see the frog in the second picture.

How lovely to have found your holy grail
It's wonderful.

 

I was looking through my in house advisor's recently bought book on wild flowers as she thought she ought to know about them and I was amazed to learn that there are about 50 native orchids, some rare and some almost extinct.
The only ones I have ever seen are early spotted at redgrave fen in Cambs. There probably are some around these parts and will have to start looking.
Fantastic photos Hornbeam.

 

Britain's wild orchids are fascinating and elusive. The Bee Orchid can be thick on the ground one year, absent entirely the next and just one or two the year after. They are perennials though, but just have dormant years. They need to attract bumble bees for pollination, but then the seeds are like dust and carry no food. So the seeds blow away and when they settle, they will only germinate and grow if the right type of fungus is in the soil. They join with the fungus and feed off it. Other orchids are totally parastic and some like the Ghost Orchid only appear and flower every 18 years! Weird! Hope to get to the fens next week to find Marsh Helleborine

 

Ive seen the bee orchid too, glad you found it HB!!
In Wales there used to be tiny purple ones growing all along the roadside, havent got a clue what they were called though.. Aren't they special?!

 

They sure are, Jay :D Orchids are still mysterious and exotic even though some are bred in captivity and sold in Sainsbury's! What is it about them that is so alluring? Is it their bizarre sex lives or there exoticism?

 

It must be their exotic qualities Hornbeam, surely? :D :D

I dunno, I think probably all of us here are in awe of all sorts of flowery planty things, even what's classed as weeds to most!

 

you couldnt class those lovely orchids as weeds!!weeds are the ones you wouldnt want in your garden..chickweed in mine!!

 

I wasn't referring to orchids!! :D

 

The seed will be as fine as dust and will blow away. Just wait till the seed pods open. Any chance of a small patch of your lawn?