Cors Erddreiniog, 22nd june 2022 ( SH 50659 77326 )

After the Cors Bodeilio visit this is a bit of a let down. I had instructions as to where to find some Lesser Butterfly Orchids and possibly Fly Orchid and I find myself in a monoculture of grassland ready for mowing. I have passed plenty of Common Spotted and Heath Spotted Orchids on the way, but nothing exceptional. Moving into the fen proper it seems that there are fewer orchids here this year, and the one thing I am looking forward to has gone. Yes, the little bench under the trees has been removed. No doubt someone thought that it might entice two strangers to sit in close proximity when social distancing is in force. I have saved this in my Covid lunacy file!

Minera Quarry, 23rd June 2022 

Not a prolonged stay here, just visiting for a look at the Frog Orchids which are doing well, and the Dactylorhizas, with all the usual suspects seen.

Y Parc, 26th June 2021 (SJ 17578 70860) 

Six weeks on from our last visit here and it is now so all overgrown. The stile to the footpath is barely visible from the road and the meadow grass is long. This time we are here for the Lesser Butterfly Orchids and the Chalk Fragrant Orchids. The Butterflies are much increased in number compared to 2020. Well, there were only 2 last year, but I stop counting at 50. They are dotted about the meadow, easily visible on the margins of the long grass. The Fragrants are also present in numbers, and show a range of form. The Early Purple Orchids in the woodland are well over, but very few have set seed. While a wet spring may have benefited later flowering orchids, perhaps it was to the detriment of these early flowerers.
There is one plant that is a bit of a mystery. It is only just starting to open and the one flower shows a Common Spotted type lip, but with minimal markings. The rest of the flower compares with the Fragrants; compare with the photo of the one just opening above. This mystery is perhaps a hybrid of the two - X Dactylodenia heinzeliana. It is the CSO-like lip that is the decider for me.

 
Plenty of variety of form amongst these Chalk Fragrant Orchids

 
and very little among the Lesser Butterfly Orchids

 
The possible hybrid and a Chalk Fragrant at the same stage of maturity
Plus one of the Early Purple Orchids that had ripening seed pods

Hirnant Valley 27th June 2021 (SH 94591 27166)

It is wellie time again, but not so much for underfoot as for making our way through wet heather and grasses and keeping jeans dry. This place has been hit and miss for me. No luck first time, jackpot second go, and just unflowering plants last time. So we have come a full month later and find some nice flowering Lesser Twayblades; not many but that is not a problem. Some are in the sphagnum under the heather directly below the layby, and others 200 yards towards the boundary stone growing in a similar habitat. They are just so hard to see. I look for the pair of small roundish leaves, but this year there is a species of violet with leaves of the same size, but just a bit darker green. That makes things that little bit harder.

Llay Industrial Estate, 29th June 2021 (SJ 32295 56601) 

Nothing much to write about here. The verge has been mowed leaving a small untouched but prominent uncut area where a number of Bee Orchids are in flower.

Alyn Waters Country Park, 29th and 30th June 2021 (SJ 33229 54952 and SJ 31955 54692 )

Surprisingly this is our first trip here for 2021, so we do both sides on different days. Llay comes first for the Bee Orchids. They are absent or scanty were we have seen them before, but conversely have spread to adjacent areas - colonies on the move. Could it be micro changes in the habitat causing this? I never see any aberrations of this species here, but live in hope. Are the varieties the result of random mutations or as a result of two recessive genes? Has anybody studied this? Common Spotted Orchids are out, but Green-flowered Helleborines have a way to go. Before we go I have a look at the Twayblade jungle.

Over on the Gwersyllt side the emphasis is elsewhere, but just behind the visitor centre, under the shade are a few Bee Orchids where we have never seen them before - colonies on the move again. These have rather pale sepals. The Dune Helleborines and the Broad-leaved Helleborines still have a couple of weeks or more to go. Surprisingly we find a couple more places we haven’t walked through before and find new patches of Helleborines to visit later.

Maes y Pant, 30th June 2021 (SJ 35397 55187)

A new orchid site for us, and it is just a couple of miles from home. Actually it is an extension of the Marford Quarry site, but under different management and it has a quite different feel. It is another wooded former gravel extraction location, with a large degree of conifer planting. In fact it was coming to the conifers from Marford and finding no orchids that held me back from wandering up to here.
We find some lanky Common Spotted Orchids under the trees as well as more pale sepaled Bee Orchids. Is this a usual occurence as the plants` reaction to growing in shade? Also present are Common Twayblades and some helleborines with the spike still bent over. Broad-leaved Helleborines are said to grow here, but to me the leaf colour is more Dune Helleborine. A return visit is needed and I may well be proved wrong. I shall also return in 2022 for a better look at the Bee Orchids.