June 6th Another Orchid Hunt

Greater Butterfly Orchid

I went orchid hunting with Dad today. I had a few places and a few species in mind. First up was a place Dad and I had been before back at the start of my quest. This time we were here for greater butterfly orchids. As this was the only site in Norfolk to find them, I'm not going to remind you where that was just in case some collector is reading this. I was given directions to their whereabouts, but we couldn't figure them out and ended up getting lost. Amazingly though, we did manage to find one somehow. It was an impressive specimen too and even Dad was impressed by it. As soon as we found it, he said to me "Best one so far!"

There are two species of butterfly orchids, the lesser and the greater. Both of them are so called because they apparently have flowers that resemble butterflies, though to me, they look more like fairies. Not only are they slightly larger than its lesser cousin, greater butterfly orchids tend to have narrower lips (the butterfly's body) and have a wide gap between the two pollinia that you can see in between the sepals (or wings if you prefer). Butterfly orchids actually targets night flying moths, not butterflies. It produces a sweet scent that lures in the moths to crawl between the orchid's pollinia. The pollinia are sticky on one side, the side that's pointing inwards and as the moth feeds, these pollinia sticks onto them ready to pollenate another flower.

With success with the butterfly orchid, we moved on to Buxton Heath. I was here Monday, but I wanted to come back to do a couple of my amateur-made videos about them. I still need to practice a bit more on these, I think. Anyway, as well as talking about the common spotted and southern marsh orchids to my camera, I also tried to seek out the remaining two Dactylorhiza orchids; the heath spotted and Pugsley's marsh. We found one rather dainty looking plant that had very few flowers that faced one way and thin slender leaves, the closest one that we can find that matches the description of a Pugsley's. However, DNA research has now classed Norfolk's Pugsley's marsh orchids as just a variation of a southern marsh orchid. So, I've decided to tick it off anyway. Close enough for me in my opinion.

Bee Orchid

Finally, we made one more stop. We went to Carrow Road, but not for football. We were here for bee orchids across the opposite side of the road to a small patch of wildflowers. It wasn't long until I spotted a few hidden in the tall grass. This is one of the most fascinating of Norfolk's orchids. It not only pretends to look like a bee, it also produces a pheromone that smells like a female bee which attracts an eager male bee who mates with it only to leave disappointed with just a pair of pollinia attached to his head. Unfortunately, the species of bee the orchid wants no longer exists in the UK anymore. However, the orchid has a trick up its sleeve. It can self pollinate itself. A butterfly and a bee in one day! Not bad!