I found this, growing in a scrap of wood near an old limestone quarry at Llanferres, on the Flintshire-Denbighshire border. It's a Lesser Butterfly Orchid (I think). It's not particularly rare but I don't recall seeing one before. Mainly we get Early Purple and Pyramidal Orchids and I know a site not far away where Bee Orchids grow. There are probably other species about which I've not noticed. Today I also saw a Dingy Skipper butterfly, which has a a big preservation thing going on over the border in Cheshire but I find on t'internet that although its numbers have declined, it isn't particularly rare either (a bit like the 'endangered' Great Crested Newt which seems to crop up on every bulding site in North-East Wales). Still, I've never noticed one before in order to be sure of it, so I'm quite pleased. And I'm pleased with my white orchid, too.
Posts
According to an expert at Kew Gardens, this is an 'albino' early purple orchid, which kind of made sense considering it was growing near a number of other EPOs. I was surprised though, because the flower shapes seemed quite different - they have a longer 'spur' at the back. Also, there were no spots on the leaves. EPOs do vary a lot though, and when I looked at a pinky-coloured one I found that the flowers on that were a bit longer and there were less spots on the leaves. Makes me think that the species must be very closely related.
ReplyDelete