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Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza Fuchsii) |
How I managed to miss the Common Spotted Orchid rosette in the back garden for so long beggars me. I have been religiously keeping an eye on the Bee-orchid (Ophrys apifera) rosettes five of which were showing over the late winter, but all of whom failed to throw up a flower spike this year.
However, I did manage to overlook it, that is until the 18th of May, by which time it was quite a substantial plant – growing within a foot of the patio, and only three feet away from the garden bench. We went west for a fortnight, and when we got back it was coming into flower.
My understanding is that this specie takes three to four years from seed set to a flowering plant, and only if the right mycorrhizal fungi are present in the soil. If this plant sets seed, I will be sprinkling a little of its “fairy dust” around the rest of the back garden, in the hope of developing a new colony. Some seed may also find its way to the front lawn.
