Late Spider Orchid - a photo on Flickriver

Late Spider Orchid

Although this looks quite like a Bee Orchid it is much, much rarer. In Britain it is wholly restricted to downland in the east of Kent and although it has been recorded at twenty sites, it only regularly flowers at five sites. The total British population numbers about 400 plants and about half of these are at just one of these sites. We saw them at two places during our visit to Kent, including a site overlooking Folkestone where we saw about twenty flowers and where I photographed this. It differs from Bee Orchid in having shorter, less pointed pink sepals. Also the sides of the flower lip (labellum) are always splayed out and the green appendage at the bottom points forward. In Bee Orchid all the edges and the appendage curl backwards creating a rounded lip like this: www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/19480491982/in/photolist The markings on the lip are incredibly variable and I did not see two plants that looked the same. Abroad it has a southern European distribution from Spain to Turkey but it is rare and endangered in a number of European countries and has recently disappeared from the Netherlands. Its scientific name is Ophrys fuciflora. Ophrys means eyebrow, referring to the furry edges of the labellum. Rather oddly fuciflora translates as seaweed flower, maybe because of the colour, or maybe from the seaweed like markings on the labellum.

Taken on: June 2, 2022

Tags:

Ophrys

fuciflora

Spider

Orchid

Folkestone

Kent

Tim Melling « less

Sets appears in: • British Flora

Stats: 5,040 views / 22 comments

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