some beauties just flowering

[daveyp1970]

  how envy am i.

[Gail]

Chris - being the ignoramus that I am, I had to google your Latin signature.  It made me laugh & I've forwarded it to my Trekkie husband!

[fredg]

how envy am i.

It's too far for a field trip Dave, unfortunately

[daveyp1970]

how envy am i.

It's too far for a field trip Dave, unfortunately

Fred i'm gutted i thought you was going to ask if i fancied going friday LMAO

[goatshed]

I just had a lovely few days orchid hunting in the south east quarter of France, the weather was atrocious, so the photos aren't brilliant. As well as orchis purpurea and simia which I won't post as Hristo's photos are much better , we came across these. I think I've identified them correctly but welcome any second opinions. Orchis pallens, dactylorhiza sambucina and some sort of ophrys.

[daveyp1970]

Gill that dactylorhiza swarm is jaw dropping both colour types wow! do you live there?or holidaying.The only orchid thats in flower over here in sunny Mansfield is Orchis mascula lovely lovely thing but i'm afraid not a patch on yours (Gill)and Chris.Whish i was there.

[goatshed]

Yes, I was stunned when I saw them. There were a lot of them, but in a relatively small area - they were in the Auvergne and quite high, about 1400m
There aren't quite so many orchids around here (Creuse), and mainly the early purple, but I have found a marsh orchid in one of our paddocks that I'm just waiting to open to identify. You should definitely consider moving to France, I'm constantly staggered by the variety that turns up.

[Hristo]

Gill, super photos, the sambucinas seem to love altitudes of 1000m+ in the Balkans, the mountains of Northern Greece, Voras, Falakro etc support massive swathes of sambucina, here in Bulgaria the situation is similar. Your Ophrys looks to be Ophrys sphegodes. there is an array of sub-species listed for sphegodes, I ain't gonna try and split it down any further!!
Some Ophrys from me;
Ophrys lutea
Ophrys mammosa
Ophrys sphegodes
Ophrys scolopax ssp. cornuta ( white sepals )
Ophrys reinholdii
Ophrys insectifera

[goatshed]

Thanks Chris I'd given up trying to identify the ophrys as there was one around every corner and they all seem slightly different. I've yet to see some of the other ophrys, but I'm sure they must be lurking around here somewhere

[Rogan]

Lovely orchids, one and all.

One of my citrus trees is lit up by the flowers of Polystachya pubescens at the moment. It is an epiphytic orchid (grows on trees) common in the warm and humid valleys of Natal. It has an odd scent (at least to my nose) which can best be described as sweet with slight fecal overtones - not too bad on the nose, really... but quite distinctive.

[Maren]

Love your Polystachya. I tried to grow one in my intermediate greenhouse but didn't get it right. Your description of the perfume makes me think that perhaps I did myself a favour. It looks great on your tree, though.

[goatshed]

That "poly_pubes" looks gorgeous Rogan!

I don't know if this is the right forum to ask, and to Chris especially:
I thought I saw a thread relating to this but heaven knows where
Are these different orchids? I though they were all purpurea, but then noticed the more deeply cut petals.

[Anthony Darby]

Gill, they all look like the Lady Orchid (Orchis purpurea). Not sure you should be telling Rogan he has gorgeous poly-pubes?

[Hristo]

Gill, they do indeed look like straight Orchis purpurea as Anthony suggests, though the hybrids can be hard to determine ( are there any O.simia nearby? )  Experience here suggests that where you find a large and dense population of what looks like O.purpurea it is more likely a hybrid, the species here is solitary or found in small colonies of less than 20 individuals. Strong zonal markings in the lip and extreme structural differences in the flower point towards a hybrid.
Here hybrids with O.simia do inherit that species colony forming habit.

[goatshed]

Thanks all. They were mostly individuals in various places but all over the place. I only found two simias, and they seemed to be just a little bit later flowering - not quite out yet. I shall just have to repeat the trip for another look (though I'm not sure if my husband would tolerate another orchid hunt  )

As for Rogans "poly_pubes", I did think that was a nice name for a file