4th May 2015, Venus Pool

This is a bird reserve near Shrewsbury, and for me a new site with Green-winged Orchids. The site is a former boggy area re-landscaped into a wild fowl reserve, with the fields surrounding seeded to become hay meadows. So effectively not a natural habitat. The parent plants for this population came from Eades Meadow in Worcestershire, where the GWOs are not as short and stunted as these. It has been said that plant height may be governed by the richness and depth of the soil, but personally I think the surrounding vegetation plays a large part; these flowers need to be seen. There were a not overwhelming number of orchids.

9th May 2015 Gop Hill

A return visit to this rounded hill at Trelawnyd near Prestatyn. Approaching the hillside is unusual as the public footpath (unmarked) runs across someone's front lawn and over a stone stile. Two spring orchids grow here, Green-winged and Early Purple. The Early purples are taller and grow lower down on the hill, especially around what is left of a small quarry. They show some range of colour.
In greater numbers and a bit higher up the hillside are the Green-winged. In fact, the two species occupy their own growing band across the hillside, with almost no overlap. Both  the higher and lower slopes are orchid-less, suggesting these two have quite particular preferences with regard to soil moisture perhaps. These show quite a range of colour shades from a deep purple through mauves, lilacs, pinks and to near white. They are quite stunted, but this may be due to the turf being close cropped by rabbits.
Both here and at Venus Pool the Green-wingeds are quite short, yet the habitats are dissimilar. Could the deciding factor in determining this species' height depend on whether the turf is cropped by sheep or rabbits, or not.

Green-winged Orchids




Early Purple Orchids

11th May 2015 Aberdyfi

Visiting here at a similar date as 2014 was a bit of a gamble, as this year seems to be lagging a bit weatherwise. However, the Sword-leaved Helleborines were starting to flower. They didn't seem to be as obvious as last year, but we counted 26 on the left side of the track by the cattle grid. Perhaps the undergrowth made it more difficult this tear. Indeed there were two conservationists there, conducting a census, and seemingly in favour of some clearance work in the woods.

The conservationists maps showed that the colony had outposts nearby, firstly above the main road towards the town, and across the road on the slope down to the railway line. None were seen on a cursory examination, but I have since been informed that I ventured the wrong direction over the road. They are on a rather steep slope.
Unlike 2014, this year the flowers did not have little dark-brown spots on them; they were all pure, virginal white.

22nd May Eryrys

This colony of Frog Orchids is quite early flowering. Reports of other sites come later in the year through to July. This is not a climatic phenomena; the Common Spotteds and Twayblades here are barely pushing their flower spikes above ground level. Many of them display bracts longer than the norm, and I am going to claim that a couple could be var longibractaeteum - though this term is out of favour in preference to recognising that bract length can be measured on a continuous scale.
In total 125 Frog Orchids were counted, and quite possibly a similar number were missed due to their size and colour. They were seen primarily in three areas, which I have called the slope, the dell and quarry's end. Those from the slope and the dell had the fresh green colouration that gave them the species name viride. Those from quarry's end had more pigmented colouration, with one almost purplish. There were three quite tall plants here suggesting that this is primary site.
An occasional Early Purple Orchid was also found.

The Frog Orchids showing range of size, colour, and bract length.



The dell, the slope, and quarry's end

Not far away on the road to Llanarmon-yn-Iƒl a roadside verge sports a nice large Early Purple Orchid colony. There were over 150 counted, in the gras and growing in the blackthorn hedge. They probably continued up the slope beyond the hedge.