Ellesmere Port 24th June 2010

A return visit to an unlikely place for Bee Orchids. We were last there in 2008 when they were discovered entirely by accident on a ramble. The orchids are still flowering here, but surprisingly they seem to be in different areas than before. Perhaps its my imagination or memory playing tricks, but they are not to be found at the spots where I expected them, but pop up in the long grass in another nearby spot. Whatever, its good to see them

Buckley 23rd June 2010

The last stop on a busy day’s touring is a return to an old favourite spot for marsh orchids. Yet again they there are hundreds on the wide verges and in the uncut grass alongside the road, and on the common. As usual the range of colours and forms are baffling. In a re-assessment from this year’s photographs I think that there is a major Common Spotted population here. Some of these are quite pale and there is the occasional all white example - hard to photograph. Then there are Northern Marsh Orchids which have gone beyond their flowering period for this year. Then there is a large hybrid population. However there is little left of one parent and there is a graded introgression of the hybrids back to the parent Common Spotteds. The hybrids all look tall and robust, with some very striking marked flowers

Three of the Northern Mash x Common Spotted hybrids

A vivid fuchsii                and perhaps two purpurellas

Llyn Idwal 23rd June 2010

The botanical interest here for me is the carnivorous butterworts and sundews in the marshy areas between the lake and the road, but over in the rough grass on the far side of the lake is a few Heath Spotted Orchids. Hardly the best examples I have seen of these!

Ynys Las 23rd June 2010

The first stop of a busy day! Well not quite the first, calls of nature and all that come first. Ynys Las is perhaps the one place that ignited my love of wild orchids way way back in 1971, so its always a pleasure to come here in the flowering season.
The Marsh Helleborines are just starting to flower in their usual place in the dune slack that borders the road, while the larger dune slacks are teeming with Early Marsh Orchids; both var incarnata and var coccinea. There is a scattering of Northern Purples here too. The Bee Orchids found in 2007 are flowering again in the same place on the land ward side of the dunes closer to the sea, while Pyramidal Orchids can be found in the marram grass on the dune sides. A walk up the dunes a bit towards Borth yields another previously un-visited dune slack (by us I mean), and there are Northern and Southern Marsh here and what could be the Western Marsh Orchid. This is another plant listed as a species by Delforge, but is likely to be a local variety of another more common species. The Early Marsh here all seem to be coccinea, but there appears to be a D. praetermissa x D. incarnata incarnata hybrid. Each species seems to have its own little favoured niche within that slack.
Both D. (majalis) occidentalis the Welsh Marsh Orchid and Spiranthes spiralis, which are listed as growing here, still elude us. Next time I must ask one of the wardens.

Three Early March - coccinea, incarnata, and possibly pulchella

Southern and Northern Marsh, and perhaps the Western Marsh Orchid

The Bee and Pyramidal Orchids in the dunes

The new dune sack visited this year

Minera Quarry 20th June 2010

A walk up from where the old railway line that ran off to New Brighton and the lead mines reveals that the sheer quarry sides at the entrance have been fenced off - completely. So no checks on how the Broad Leaved Helleborines are doing at the foot of those cliffs. However the track leading out just beyond the cliff shows a good colony in the hedge/scrub on the left. On the more stabilised quarry floor towards the top end of the quarry are Common Twayblades, Common Spotteds, Heath Spotteds, Early Marsh, Pyramidal and Fragrant Orchids. The latter two are particularly scant this year. We may have been too late for the Frog Orchids as none seen yet again

Northern and Southern Marsh Orchids, with x Common Spotted hybrids