Late Spider Orchid

It was time for a return visit to Kent for the Late Spider Orchid Ophrys fuciflora. We had found them nearly two weeks ago but none were in flower. Orchids are a bit like birding, everyone sets there own rules for what counts as a sighting but for me it had to be the plant in flower.

It is a two hundred mile round trip to the location and it is difficult to justify that sort of journey for a picture of one small orchid that I had seen in bud only two weeks earlier.  To ease my conscience, I justified it to myself by having a secondary target of White Helleborine, which would also be a life tick, conveniently forgetting that I could see this just a few miles from home.

I left home just after five arriving on site in the Wye valley at about seven o'clock, my concern being that later in the day the place could be full of orchid twitchers. As it was I saw no one and although there were signs of trampled grass around the entrance the place seems to be little visited.

I found my Orchid but then had a mild panic as it had a big black slug crawling over the rosette. It would have made a great picture but I had visions of the orchid being decapitated whilst I was getting my camera out. Having escorted the slug into an adjacent field I duly recorded my first Late Spider Orchid. Checking when I got home the slug seems to have been a rather large example of Arion ata agg. which has a preference for rotting vegetation rather than growing plants but it wasn't worth taking the risk.

Checking around there were at least another ten plants in flower.

Late Spider Orchid

Late Spider Orchid

Initially thought this was a Bee Orchid but it has a protruding nib on the lip

Most of these plants are protected by wire cages but the picture below gives a better feel for the size of the plant and the difficulty of finding them without some knowledge of where to look.

Even with a colourful flower they are not easy to spot

There seems to be a large variation in the shape and pattern of markings on the lip of this orchid. The sixth one below perhaps not fully developed yet.

I had expected to spend the whole day searching for a specimen in flower. There I was at 8am eating my packed lunch and wondering what to do next. See the next blog for four more orchids and a Heath Fritillary butterfly and all before midday. I was on a roll  - until it started to rain.