www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Taken a day or two ago...It is actually a photo from an old abandoned quarry halfway up a steep valley side here in Swaledale.. growing in large numbers with Bee orchid... I'm sure it's indigenous... nearest we could come up with was Green winged, but not much in the way of green wing... leaves would be right though!

hi paul,

very interesting, but im sure they aren't green winged, although of the same genus and so share structural simularities.
ive managed a wild flower meadow here in the new forest for the last twelve years which has a large colony of them and although they are variable in colour ive never seen any with that lip shape plus yours is lacking the veins. it has simularity with early purple but again yours lacks any leaf spotting and has a different lip shape.
ive had a quick referal through my books but still can't find any native species matching it. perhaps someone else might be able to identify it.

gary.

Thanks Gary... actually makes me feel better regarding my feeble effort to ID..

nice back lit heath spotted orchid gary,

i see you was down at holmsley at the weekend, did you take a peek inside the inclosure for small pearl?
find attached some of my pics from martin down and the forest at the weekend.
paul i did a little more investigating what your orchid might be and im fairly sure it may be an early purple variation "stabiana" its described as having no leaf spotting and pale pink flowers, which i think would match your plant well. you might want to try looking into more info on that yourself.

gary.

That would explain it, I will check it out, many thanks Gary.

geniculata wrote:martin down and the forest at the weekend.

It's a wonder we never see you at the weekend, we went to Holmsley, and to Martin Down for the Burnt Tipped. ( Tones of Small Blue and Adonis at Martin Down BLW ).

geniculata wrote:i see you was down at holmsley at the weekend, did you take a peek inside the inclosure for small pearl?

I'm afraid after a visit to the Holmsley Tea house, we were both way too fat to chase any butterflies around.

Gruditch

This Orchid at Upton Fen Norfolk 2nd June, is apparently a Southern Marsh Orchid. But my informant, an engineer with Norfolk Wildlife Trust was not 100% certain and said I would need to ask the experts. Well experts? Over to you.But this wasn't difficult The Flag Irises were looking gorgeous in the sun.
Jack

Hi all,
Last Friday I took a walk beside the Ferring Rife - a small stream that runs into the sea just to the west of Worthing. This site is famous for its huge colony of orchids (20,000+). The taxonomy of some these plants is still debated, but there appears to be a high proportion of hybrids between the 'pure' Early Marsh and Common Spotted Orchids. This results in many examples of what biologists refer to as 'hybrid vigour', where the resultant plants are considerably more robust than either of the 'components'. Some of these flower spikes are in excess of 30" tall!
Neil

I too went to Ferring this week, I'm fairly confused about the taxonomy...
going by lip shape, markings, sepals and leaves I could see plants with these characteristics fairly clearly:

Common Spotted
Early Marsh
Southern Marsh
Southern and Comm Spot (Leopard) (presumably hybrid)
Southern and Early Marsh (presumably hybrid)
Comm Spot and Early Marsh (presumably hybrid)

However, proper in depth analysis by Sussex Uni has apparently shown that all of the flowers here are derived from Common Spotted Orchid and Early Marsh Orchid only - no Southern Marsh!
Above. Dactylorhiza is an interesting genus - this is not a Southern Marsh Orchid according to some....

No shortage of orchids at Southwater.

A trip out to see the Lizard Orchids near Newmarket today was well worth the long walk involved.
NB: Some look like they are past their best already, but a few photogenic specimens if you look around a bit...






Trev

Susie wrote:No shortage of orchids at Southwater.

There is a shortage now Susie as someone has mown down nearly all of them
Much of the marsh thistle and a lot of brambles have also gone

Polly

Nice shots Trev, very jealous. I was quite chuffed with myself at the weekend, as I found a Fragrant Orchid on my local reserve, where they were long since thought to be extinct.

Gruditch

I went to an organic lavender farm this afternoon. I thought the place would be packed with butterflies but it was a bit early and the flowers weren't open yet. Still a very pleasant place for a visit though.