Tuesday, 17 August 2021
Adventures in Orchidaceae pt 8 .. upon a Chalk Hill ..
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| St Hubert's of Idsworth |
The day started with a pilgrimage to, and a guided meditation, within the grounds of the exquisite St Hubert's of Idsworth.
The church is surrounded by a wide belt of wildflower meadow, whose beckoning of flora and butterflies was somewhat distracting - given the main purpose of my visit.
Spiritually refreshed, I headed to Noar Hill in the search for Musk orchid (Herminium monorchis) and Frog orchid (Dactylorhiza viridis), I could not find the latter, but once my eye was in on the musk orchid I was pleasantly surprised by its abundance - finding its short, pale spikes throughout much of the short grassland of the quarried centre of the hill.
Whilst the location of the frog orchids remained elusive I thoroughly enjoyed the supporting cast of orchids I encountered: common spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii), although very much over; Pyramidal orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis), and chalk fragrant-orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) again edging heavily toward seed.
This hill always keeps giving when you start looking through the turf. However, today was not the day for wider scrutiny, not the time to get bogged down with the effort to observe and record everything that I could find and name.
My mood of late had been in desperate need of lightening. This combination of pilgrimage, meditation and a new orchid species to observe - was the uplift that I so very much needed and I left the hill in high spirit.
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| Musk orchid |
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| Common spotted-orchid |
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| Pyramidal orchid |
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| Chalk fragrant-orchid |
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| Musk orchids |
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| Noar Hill |
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