Our garden plays host to lizards and Lizard Orchids [Himantoglossum hircinum] Orchis bouc....
but, because I haven't been able to mow the front lawn properly,
a new Orchid species has appeared in the grass that would normally have been mowed by now!!
How many years it has been there... who knows?
It will have been cut off in its prime at the first "tonte" of the year for the last ten if it has been there that long!!
Orchids don't just appear... they require the right fungi in the ground as a "symbiotic"* food supplier...
and they take a number of years to grow to the state where there is enough stored in their tubers to achieve flowering...
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| The first flower spotted is already fading... before the next flower is fully open. |
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| This is the latest flower... and one to go. |
It is an "Insect" Orchid [Ophrys sp.]...
An Early Spider Orchid [Ophrys sphegodes] Ophrys araignée to be accurate...
Very nice... we've been hoping we don't just have Lizard Orchids... as weirdly wonderful as they are...
it now has a yellow marker to make sure I don't chop it to pieces before it has time to seed....
And then, checking the state of the grass by the potager....
I found another... this time it is a Greater Butterfly Orchid [Platanthera chlorantha]Orchis verdâtre....
again, never seen one here before...
but this is another area that gets regularly mown.
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| As first seen in the late evening... |
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| And a close up of the flower |
When it is dry I'm working!!
When it is wet... I'm working....
indoors!!
But... there are lots more that I've ever seen.
To mow or not to mow...
that is the question?
Whether 'tis...
No...
I cannot leave the grass to grow willy-nilly...
but I can leave areas to grow each year and mark what appears...
and that I shall do!...
carefully avoiding the known orchids.
Also a post will follow soon about the Lizard Orchids...
my brain said I'd already posted...
computer says "No!"
* "symbiotic" - this is
Susan has corrected my mind.... symbiosis, apparently, can be one sided. Thanks
