Late Spider Orchids
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At this time of year there are so many places I could visit locally and when I knew the forecast for today was good I tried to think of which orchid would probably be at its best this week. To help me make my mind up I looked at last year's pictures and noticed that last year on the 13th June I was at Wye National Nature Reserve looking for Late Spider Orchids (Orchis fuciflora). It has also been a couple of weeks since I was at Park Gate Down, so I planned a day visiting both sites.  The difference a diffuser can make Last year I was told of a particular area where there are a few of the very rare Late Spider Orchids This really is a local rarity that you will only find here in Kent. I managed to find the place again without too much problem but then I remembered that to get to them you have to walk through very tall stinging nettles. Lucky I wore shorts today then! In a very unlikely looking area under some cages there were the orchids just the same as last year. I must admit they didn't look the strongest of plants at all and many of the flowers had already gone over or been nibbled by insects. It was quite a challenge getting pictures of these little orchids on the very steep slope when the best flower meant I had to sit facing downwards and try not to slip down the slope. Add to that the sun being very strong and bleaching out the delicate colours. I used my diffuser on some of the pictures once more and the results are surprising. I often meet people when out on my orchid trips and strike up conversations about what you have seen and where etc. I was really surprised though when the retired chap I met said he had come down on the train all the way from Yorkshire that day, just to see the Late Spider Orchids and was thrilled he had found them. He told me of the many places all over the country he had been in his quest to find as many of the UK Orchids as he could. I must admit I felt very envious.  Variations in Late Spider Orchids Having spent a lovely couple of hours enjoying the warm sunshine at Wye, with a kestrel for company who was hunting high above all the time I was there, it was time to move on to my favourite orchid meadow, Park Gate Down. It was a wonderful surprise to see that the Late Spider Orchid was in flower there too. There was only one plant that I found in the past and it flowers a bit later in June on that site. It's a very different looking Late Spider Orchid to the ones at Wye too as the photos show and is a far more robust looking plant than the ones at Wye. In flower in the meadow too were hundreds, or should that be thousands of Fragrant Orchids (Gymnadenia conopsea) and the Musk Orchids (Herminium monorchis) have just started to flower too. I also knew of a place where I found a Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) flowering last year so just before I drove home I went into the meadow opposite Park Gate and sure enough it was there. It had turned into a very windy afternoon which makes it very hard to get good pictures so I will have to return to Park Gate very soon to get the Fragrant Orchids at their best. Recommended Reading If you are interesting in finding out more about these and Britain's other orchids, these books are very handy to have. You can buy them directly through Amazon.co.uk from this site.  
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 Poppies in a field near Barham One more stop on my way home as I was passing was to look at a poppy field near Barham that is looking stunning right now. I have noticed it several times over the last few weeks and today was the first time I was able to stop and was I glad I had too, the late afternoon sun really intensified the colour of the flowers. Late Spider Orchids are classed as vulnerable and afforded protection under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 Schedule 8
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