Came across a group of fat juicy specimens of early purple orchid (Orchis mascula) flowering away on a roadside verge.
Love their spotty leaves
They were certainly doing well!
Blooming orchids
Close up
hope that no-one goes to remove them.On Bill Oddy's programe some time back, he was showing different orchids, quite a few in Kent if I remember rightly.
Yes, we're blessed with a large number of species :)
We also have lots of orchids in Finland, but they're rare. The most common ones are Dactylorhizas, I've seen them in many places, also here in Espoo. I also have planted a couple of them into our garden, and they bloom nicely in June. :)
did you know that Orchis is Latin for testicles? and back in the day ladies werent allowed to enter orchid houses to save their blushes
I did know but had conveniently forgotten when I posted this - or I wouldn't have dared LOL
Didn't know the bit about the ban from orchid houses though - when I think of all the times I was in my father's orchid house when an innocent and impressionable young thing..........I blush to think about it ;)
Ah yes, I remember that Bill Oddy programme. Pretty flowers!
there is an orchid house somewhere in the UK, so we were told in Heligan, which the Lady of the house insisted was big enough for her horse drawn carriage to pass through so she could have a sneaky look.
LOL I expect she was disappointed then ;)
......just flowers!
Baa
May 12, 2003
Orchis is actually Greek.
This message was edited Monday, May 12th 1:32 PM
Well the bees are certainly fooled ;)
but I think we're getting off the theme of male genitalia now...
Baa
May 12, 2003
Please accept my apologies, my above post has been edited to remove all mention
Baa, that wasn't intended as a reprimand or criticism - I thought your post was very interesting. My reply was intended to be read tongue in cheek. Darned internet - you'd have seen the twinkle in my eye face to face
Please put it back if you can
phil I had never seen that lovely orchid before now. P.S. Seems that the tongue in cheek doesn't seem to work very well on the net - I've been there on the receiving end and I'm sure you did have a twinkle in your eye!! :-)
Yes, never mind, I think we were all getting a little 'too close for comfort' to the unacceptable LOL
We were beginning to touch on the Ophrys genus fooling insects into finding them a beguiling substitute for the female of the species ;)