Llynllys, 2nd June 2018 (SJ 27352 23565)

We were here a couple of weeks later in 2017, and found a nice location for Greater Butterfly Orchids; they were on their way out though. So this year we catch them in their prime. They first time we called here, way back in 2011, we found this species entirely by chance. Where we saw them now is quite overgrown, so if they still grow there they are lst in undergrowth. Now, not far from that spot, there are some hundred or more plants in flower spread over a wide area, mainly under shade, but some in a more open position. Some were over 30 cm in height, and all stood out so well in the gloom. Fantastic!

Also seen are some late flowering Early Purple Orchids with seemingly larger than normal flowers, Common Twayblades with colourful ovaries, and the odd Common Spotted Orchid coming into flower.

Haskayne Cutting 3rd June 2018   (SD 35685 08848)

Our first visit here in 2017 was in early July, and the contrast couldn't be more dramatic. Then we saw some large Early Marsh Orchids going over, and a few spikes with seeds developing from another Dactylorhiza. Now the Early Marsh are nowhere to be seen, and there are some 3,000 Southern Marsh Orchids - incorrectly identified as Northern Marsh on a Hardy Orchid Society post. This error is understandable, because they are such a deep purple colour; not the usual washed-out colours associated with Southern Marsh. A look at the lips reveals the SMO shape and patterning with none of the bold bright magenta blotching of the NMO. There are some quite robust and tall plants suggesting that they may be hybrids, but the plants with flowers more suggestive of hybridisation (D. incarnata x praetermissa) are typically sized with rather lax flowered spikes.

Ainsdale Dunes 3rd June 2018 (SD 29478 12244)

Once again we are really too early to really see what these dunes have to offer. Last year we travelled their by rail, and after the trek from the station to the coast and then across to the dunes we were in need of a rest already! It was a hot day. Consequently we didn't cover as much of the dunes as we should have, bearing in mind we had to return. This time we paid to park on the beach, and drove down to where the dunes started.
Alas though, despite covering over twice the ground following the line of pondy dune slacks that run parallel to the beach, there is not much more to add to last year's comments. A few Southern Marsh Orchids and Early Marsh Orchids (coccinea) are dotted along our path. A closer look however shows that there are a hell of a lot more to come into flower in perhaps 10 days time. The one thing I do notice is there are more Dune Helleborines coming through than we noticed last year - if indeed that is what they are. The leaves have the colour, and arrangement of E. dunensis, but the base of the stem if atypically purple in colour.

Dune Helleborine?

RSPB Burton Mere 4th June 2018 (SJ 31426 73496)

We have usually been here previously to see the Bee Orchids, but this year we are a little earlier. There are some along the path in bud, one in flower in front of a bird hide and some better examples out of reach below and to the left of the visitor centre. But this year we get a great display of the Southern Marsh Orchids; must be a few hundred along or close by the footpaths. There are three closish together that are almost pink in colour, whilst the others are very nice shades of purple - definitely not as deeply coloured as those at Haskayne.

Freeman's Copse 4th June 2018 (SJ 41052 76229)

I approached this site with a degree of trepidation. We usually park near the Boat Museum and enjoy the walk along the canal. This time though, someone had been busy with a strimmer, with vegetation on either side of the towpath severely strimmed. All was okay though. The Bee Orchids are growing well away from the path and the colony is seemingly unharmed. Actually, the surrounding vegetation is quite high, and the flowers are only just poking through. Some have been nibbled, possibly by snails or slugs, while the aberrations are still here - lacking shoulder bumps, var belgarum style, but boasting asymmetrical lip patterning. The first time here the Bee orchids could be found in a glade in the trees, but again this year there are none to be found.

Ynys Las 8th June 2018 (SN 60948 94102)

Has it really been five years since our last visit? Well, it was rather disappointing in 2013, with few orchids and much overgrown. Notices said as much, and the response was over-winter grazing by horses. It seems to have worked, as it really does look like the glory days of Ynys Las have returned.
What I consider to be the main dune slack is awash with Early Marsh Orchid - coccinea mainly, and some incarnata, and perhaps what may be hybrids of the two. In fact there is not many classic incarnata, while looking back at old photos there were swathes of pink. What I see are classic coccineas and others, red before the flower opens and more pink later. There is a a range of these, which may be hybrids between the two sub-species - they are too red for incarnata, but too pink for coccinea. Elsewhere I see Early Marsh Orchids of a more purple shade. Perhaps it is these that the visitor centre has labeled as ssp. pulchella. This is not their habitat though, and I would suspect hybridisation with the Southern Marsh Orchids.

 
D. incarnata ssp. coccinea and a selection of the pinker forms
 
The `pulchella' or hybrid Early Marsh Orchids

Where the ground is just a tad higher, and therefore a tad dryer are loads of Southern Marsh Orchids, some looking decidedly `Leopardy' though these are perhaps in part hybrids as that taxon is said to be undersized and loose-flowered. They do have large marked open spots in the leaves, and there is a continuum from smaller examples to large `butch' versions.

 
Southern Marsh Orchids and some robust hybrids
 
The `Leopardy' forms

Otherwise the marsh orchids in general at Ynys Las seem to be heavily hybridised and introgressed - Frankenorhiza. The visitor centre has a display featuring the orchids found there with identification guides. However these are out of date in some respects; for instance, there are references to Dactylorhiza majalis ssp. cambriensis, the Western Marsh Orchid, but also D. purpurella ssp. cambriensis as the Welsh Marsh Orchid - confusing or what?. The former probably represents the colony that grows near the road at the north end of the golf course, and the other those that grow nearer the sea at the southern end of the dunes. But these and others are probably a mix of Northern Marsh, Southern Marsh, Early Marsh and Common Spotted Orchid genes.

 
Dactylorhiza majalis ssp. cambriensis
 
D. purpurella ssp. cambriensis

On the less fluffy side of orchid identification we come across some Common Twayblades in the slacks and a single Bee Orchid in a precarious position in the dunes.

Neston Old Quay 8^th June 2018 (SJ 28861 76946)

Perhaps over 200 Southern Marsh Orchids grow in this field, down in the damper areas where the rushes grow. While other nearby colonies at Burton and Gowy are home to rather deeply coloured SMOs, those here are paler and more like those I have seen elsewhere. Is the soil here deficient in a vital nutrient, or have these arisen independently to those other two colonies? There is one aberrant plant, with deformed flowers on a rather lax flower spike.

We want to continue the walk down to the actual old quay, but this field is also home to a quartet of rather frisky horses who have positioned themselves by that gate. They know!