Orchids are picky plants aren't they? Very choosey as to where they grow.

Visit Ynyslas dunes and go to the dune slacks in late June or Early July and the turf there is carpeted with orchids (usually). But look carefully and you can see demarkation lines between species, and even the sub-species of Early Marsh Orchids. The D. incarnata incarnata prefer the centre of the slacks, while D. incarnata coccinea grow more towards the margins. This is but an inch or two higher in elevation but that must make all the difference as to which variety grows where. The Marsh Helleborines as you might expect have their own areas within the same dune slacks, as do the Southern Marsh Orchids which like the periphery especially where a bit of shade from bushes exists and the grasses and other plants are taller.

Go to Coalbrookdale and along one lane there are two colonies of Violet Helleborines growing but a hundred yards apart. And nothing in-between. It looks the same to me with same trees and slope. But somehow the helleborines must have found this in-between patch unsuitable. It could be how damp the ground remains, the depth of the soil, or amount of light that falls in that area; either too much or not enough.

This suggests that even a slight change to a habitat could spell disaster to the orchids growing there. If the dune slacks dry out a bit would the balance between species change? Visiting Ynyslas in 2013, as we approached I noticed that the vegetation seemed denser close to road. In the visitor centre was a notice admitting that the dunes and slacks had been encroached by scrub vegetation, and they were introducing winter grazing there to help reduce this. There did seem to be a change in the orchid population since my last visit. The Early Marsh Orchids were noticeably reduced in numbers while the Marsh Helleborines were seemingly replacing them. The Pyramidal Orchids growing in the higher sandy areas in the marram were also increased in numbers. Could the scrub have changed the the balance of the soil water, making the slacks damper and the dunes drier? Hopefully the grazing initiative could reverse what has happened and the surviving colonies can repopulate the ground that they have lost.

Are the Violet Helleborines at Coalbrookdale at risk. If the amount of light or shade is the critical factor then it only requires one the the neighbouring trees to be damaged in a gale to result in a significant change. It would take many years for the woodland to recover and one colony of helleborines could be lost. Of course the woodland is constantly changing and a new suitable habitat nearby could be seeded by the dying colony or the other colony.

BUT

Against this there are some very surprising colonisations by orchids. They do seem to like poor quality soils and can compete easier against other potential colonists in those conditions. The industrial revolution has provided some of these sites. Both the Nob End reserve and Anderton Country Park sites are former chemical industry sites. And both have been well populated by orchids; Dactylorhiza at the former and by Fragrant Orchids at the latter. In the N.E. of England and Central Lowlands of Scotland helleborines have colonised former coal tips, even giving rise to a new form - Young's Helleborine - perhaps an ecovariant, perhaps a new form evolving. Near Wrexham a former sand and gravel quarry returned to nature is home to perhaps the largest colony of Dune Helleborines, as well as thousands of Common Twayblades and some Green Flowered Helleborines.

SO

On the face of it orchids are a bit of an enigma. One the one hand they are ultra-fussy in their requirements, and on the other jumping in at new opportunities. But are there just a small number of opportunist species, or are other species doing the same elsewhere? In all honesty I cannot see Red Helleborines or Small White Orchids being found in significant numbers at new sites. The colonisation of newly created habitats as described above is possibly just a temporary blip, part of vegetative succession. In time those areas will inevitably change and the orchid numbers will fall. Thus despite these remarkable colonisations it is essential that existing orchid sites are not lost or unnecessarily modified. Even so, the current sites will change. Hopefully dispersed seed will continue to find new sites currently devoid of orchids that are habitats-in-waiting.

This sort of links into another ramble - Managed Sites