Anyway I did take some flower snaps the other weekend. I'm no orchid expert, and I'm always taken aback by the variety of form individual orchid types can take, but I think these are all common spotted orchids despite the varying flower heads.
Some were growing in a local meadow (not Rich's this time, but Paul's), along with yellow rattle - the grass parasite that helps control the more rampant grasses that might otherwise swamp the flowers - ........
and this vetch - I think birdsfoot trefoil, but there were no seed heads to enable confirmation.
Over at Newport wetlands I found a vetch I recognised instantly - even though I had never seen it before - the grass vetchling. I first heard of it when Rich and Nic told me that they had found a specimen in their developing hay meadow. It's just as Nic described - typical pea flowers on the stems and leaves of a grass. Nice plant but tricky to photograph - tall and slim it's mostly fresh air!
The real aim of going to the wetlands was to see if 2011 was a better year for one of my real favourites - the last 2 hadn't been so good. Whilst snapping the grass vetchling a soft pink caught my eye, and sure enough it was my first bee-orchid for 3 years. With a bit more looking I found more, and eventually some I could snap with a more uncluttered background. Aren't these flowers just the bee's-knees! (Sorry).
I really do love them. Again they can be tricky to snap given the relatively narrow plane of focus macro lenses often have. Front to back it's a lot of flower to get sharp.Larger pic's and a few more will appear on the web albums over the next few days, so do have a look.
1 comment:
Great shot of the bee on its final approach to the orchid, landing gear extended!
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