The Dark Side is calling, Orchids that is. It all got a bit too complicated for me. Once you have seen all the main species or nearly all, then you get dragged into hybrids and colour variants. The scope is huge and the opinions even bigger.
I had decided no more orchids but then you pause to look, you take a picture, put a name to it and the Dark Side calls you back.
There were the Lady and Butterfly orchids in Denge Wood. I was on my knees photographing a moth and they were just in front of me. I couldn't just walk away.
A Pyramidal Orchid in the fog at Samphire Hoe.
We visited Fairmile Bottom, me looking for moths whilst Dave checked out the Orchids. Nice Bee Orchids amongst lots of others species but not many moths.
Hybrids leading to huge specimens
Frog Orchids but I was really starting to loose interest. Then Dave pointed out something a bit more unusual. A Frog Orchid x Common Spotted Orchid hybrid. Dactylorhiza viridis x Dactylorhiza fuchsii giving rise to Dactylorhiza x mixtum. Not much of a name but the flower was interesting.
Just past their best but six different plants in a small area showing a good colour variation. There may have been more there but we did not see them.
It was interesting and worth recording but I have to remind myself, that it was the hybrids and the difficulty of identifying them, that caused me to loose interest in Orchids.
The Light Side still holds sway.
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