2015 Orchideering started early with an April holiday in Corfu. Going this early means that all the resorts and their gay abandon is missing. The other plusses are that the weather is warm and pleasant, the roads outside Corfu Town are quiet, and its the best time of year for orchids.

Apart from that I have no real plans to start with and have to work some visits for personal not-seen-befores pretty quick.
That was written in April. By the end of June, in addition to some new and old local spots, I had managed some short orchid hunting breaks in Cumbria, the West Midlands and South Gloucestershire. By the end of June 19 new sites had been visited, but only two new full species seen. What is becoming apparent is that not-seen-befores are becoming harder to find, and require more traveling. So be it.

This year I have made a massive 75 site visits, to 42 different sites, with 23 being new to me. On these visits I have seen 40 species, varieties and putative hybrids, and added 5 new species to the list - the Coralroot and the Fen Orchid, both of which required trekking across sand dunes on out of the way peninsulas, Narrow-leaved Helleborine, Musk Orchid, and the ever elusive Fly Orchid. In addition I have logged up to 8 varities to my sightings. However, a Broad-leaved Helleborine found in late June was the star of the year. Not only did it lack chlorophyll, it also lacked any pink or purple anthocyanins, yielding a uniformly straw-coloured plant. This combination does not seem to have been seen before; a mixture of E. helleborine var chlorantha and E. helleborine var. monotropoides. For more on this see My Ramblings

Now to plan for 2016