Dactylorhiza 2013

[John Aipassa]

A few more pictures:

[John Aipassa]

And another batch.

[K Andrzejewski]

...The seeds burried under the fertile top soil were now exposed and even after more than a hundred years several germinated ...

- John, is this officially description of this place ??
Kristof

[John Aipassa]

- John, is this officially description of this place ??
Kristof

Yes Kristof, not only does the descriptions states so, I happen to know one of the people involved with the project, a son of one of the men responsible for the project to happen. We talked about this project intensively.

This part of The Netherlands was once fenland and many parts also very sandy with an abundant native flora and fauna, including Dactylorhiza and Epipactis, who unfortunately disappeared when the lands were converted for intensive agricultural uses. Decades of enrichment of the soil with manure (cow and pig) resulted in a topsoil ideal for growing "plain" grasses for cows and crops like corn, but devastating for the rich original flora.

The idea to convert this piece of agricultural meadows and cropfields into the original lands was accompanied by getting the original layer back in which all kinds of seeds and spores were deposited decades ago, but were burried under the fertile topsoil. There was no sowing of seeds or whatsoever by man. Just the scraping off of the rich topsoil until the original soil layer was exposed. After this, a minimum of human management or maintenance was done and nature could take its course.

After a while all kinds of native flora appeared, which are still not very common here at the moment, but were in the "old days" just a part of the every day flora here. And it happened in less than a decade.

The method of scraping off the rich topsoil until the original layer is exposed with a few seeds and spores of flora still viable is common practice here in The Netherlands, when lands are given back to nature to get the rich native species of flora (and eventually fauna) back again.

I was once part of a different project, which tried to create corridors in a woodland for native reptiles (snakes) in order to reconnect each isolated population in order to keep the gene pool healthy. The populations were isolated because of heavy and dense brushes and wild grasses. The brushes were cleared and pathways and habitat islands were created by scraping of the grassy topsoil until the original layer is exposed. The seeds of mostly heather species were present in this original layer also burried many years under top soil. After scraping off, there was no further interference by man (no sowing, etc.) and after a while heather and other original flora did appear to create habitat and pathways for the reptiles.

Just common practice, not more not less .

[K Andrzejewski]

- so I understand on the begining of this project nobody could proove, that orchid seeds are inside the old soil - but there is hypothesis about because after few years Dactylorhiza appeared on site?

[ashley]

As a boy the first time I saw bee orchids (and in great numbers) was on a site near home where the topsoil had been removed and many plants (re)appeared that were no longer common in the area.  Wonderful.

[K Andrzejewski]

- and this is typically behavior of all orchids: to colonize a new places. They are many of abandoned quarries, building sites, road margins and other places with disturbed topsoil across Europe - well know for spontanous orchid occurances. Good example is a site in Kent with waste material left over from the digging of the Channel Tunnel.
Kristof

[John Aipassa]

- so I understand on the begining of this project nobody could proove, that orchid seeds are inside the old soil - but there is hypothesis about because after few years Dactylorhiza appeared on site?

Indeed. One did not know for sure if there were still viable seeds present. They created a landscape and circumstances like it was before man changed it for agricultural pruposes and waited which species do appear, hoping many of the original flora to come back. Since in the neighbourhood a very small nature reserve was present, they hoped that the recovery would be succesful. So Dact seeds travelling from there to the site is a key factor too. Many species they expected did indeed appear, but also species that became extinct in this area, within only five years, but some didn't, like Dactylorhiza incarnata.  On the other hand the project owners were very surprised by the appearance of "new" species in very great numbers they didn't expect, like Epipactis palustris. This orchid and other new flora species were not present here and in its vicinity, i.e. no seeds from neighbouring sites travelling there. And the abundance of appearance was the greatest surprise.

[mark smyth]

151 Dactylorhiza spikes in the garden - yes I know very nerdy of me to count them.

Yesterday I accidentally knocked over a pot that had a new purchase from 2012 - Dactylohiza kalopissii. I was amazed how large next years tuber was compared to the original tuber.

I've always waited until mid to late July to remove tubers. Maybe it can be done now which gives the mother plant more time to make a new tuber before going dormant

foliosa? Harold Esslemont - apologies I can never remember how to spell it
kalopissii - the aphids in my garden are horrendous this year. I spray them and in days they are back again
praetermissa var junialis - a close up
x lindholm - praetermissa x sambucina - a close up

[Maggi Young]

Harold Esslemont - apologies I can never remember how to spell it

That's exactly correct, Mark. 

[mark smyth]

I must try to remember S. Lemont

[Maren]

Hi Mark,
the white dactylorhiza fuchsii I got from you are doing very well indeed. 

[krisderaeymaeker]

An ordinary D. fuchsii .

[Graham Catlow]

Three of my four. Still waiting  for fuchsii to bloom.

D. Eskimo Nell in full bloom now.
D. foliosa
A group of unknown with an 'Eskimo Nell'. I separated one off last year as a back up, and as these unknowns do so well I planted it close by.

[Roma]

Not content with appearing all over my garden and especially in pots, Dactylorhiza purpurella has escaped into a boggy patch in my ponies' field.  I counted 50 flower spikes in this area.

Dactylorhiza maculata just outside the fence at the other end of the field.