Field trips June 2010

[fredg]

My friend Daveyp and I were checking out the local orchid sites again today.
There are quite a lot of photographs, I hope not too many 
Site 1 is a site for Dactylorhiza fuchsii and its hybrids

[fredg]

Site 1 continued

[fredg]

Site 2 is a small piece of grass between a main road and a disused factory.
Here we have Ophrys apifera

[fredg]

Site 3 is a traditional  managed meadow.
A good place for Dactylorhiza fuchsii /hybrids and Listera ovata.
It was amazing just how many Listera ovata in two distinct colour forms were here.

[fredg]

Site 4 is a reclaimed muck stack ( slag heap / coal mining waste disposal area).
Here we found Dactylorhiza fuchsii, Dactylorhiza purpurella and their hybrids.

Photo 4d is interesting, an ID would be appreciated.

4g is a fasciated inflorescence.

[fredg]

Site 4 continued.

[Hristo]

Great sites Fred, interesting to see how Dactylorhiza and Ophrys can behave on disturbed sites.

[daveyp1970]

the only pics that i can add are.
Chris with loss of habitat in England,old waste tips from the coal industry are turning out to be a fantastic sites for the early colonising orchids.

[christian pfalz]

fred, fantastic habitat pictures...
cheers
chris

[Peter Maguire]

I previously posted some pictures from a site in Co Durham, NE England of Orchis mascula earlier this year in another section of the forum (http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5295.75). Having made a return visit yesterday to this site (it's a disused quarry, now a nature reserve managed by the Durham Wildlife Trust) on my way home form the Summer Show North, I thought the latest pictures from this site would be better posted here.
Firstly two pictures of Listera (Neottia) ovata.
Then a Dactylorhiza found nearby which I believe to be D. fuchsii.
Finally four pictures of Dactylorhizas from a different part of the site (the base of the old quarry) which I believe to be Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp coccinea. Not the usual reddish colour, I know, but they are small in stature and there is a lot of purple in the stalk of the inflorescence.
I still struggle to identify Dactylorhizas with any confidence. so please feel free to disagree with my identifications.

[Anthony Darby]

the only pics that i can add are.
Chris with loss of habitat in England,old waste tips from the coal industry are turning out to be a fantastic sites for the early colonising orchids.

We call them coal bings.

[daveyp1970]

Anthony we call them slag heaps, the turning of them into nature reserves was a stroke of genius, from what was huge black marks on the horizon came wildlife havens.

[Anthony Darby]

They have been largely left alone here too, altough I have seen some that smoke and have red hot fissures in them. The one near Candie at the top of the Avon gorge (between Falkirk and Bathgate) comes to mine.

[Peter Maguire]

I thought I'd add a few images taken on a recent trip to Western Scotland about 10 days ago, all of Dactylorhiza maculata. The first group are of a population I came across in Glen Etive; about 150-200 flowering plants, all at the lighter end of the colour range for this species, with one pure white one.

[Peter Maguire]

2 more from a small group of about ten plants near Ardnamurchan Point. These were pinker, and there may have been more, but it was getting late and I was a long way from where I planned to camp.