In habitat; Fragrant orchid

[SteveC2]

After three years of searching my local reserve for the fragrant orchid, Gymnadenia conopsea, I stumbled across a group of nine yesterday.  For once the drought has had a positive side as I'm sure that they've been there before but the normally lush surrounding vegetation has hidden them.  This year, due to the dry spring, the grass looks as if ten thousand rabbits have been released into the reserve, and hey presto, fragrants are visible.

[Neil]

Steve hope you gave it a good sniff!

[SteveC2]

The scent is so strong that you don't need to give it a good whiff Neil.  It hits you from a couple of feet away.  And today's discoveries were even more scented, Marsh Fragrant Orchid, Gymnadenia densiflora, from a mire in north Norfolk, growing with marsh hellebroines, on slightly higher tussocks, but very definitely with their feet wet.

[Anthony Darby]

I didn't know the two forms had been split.

[SteveC2]

Oh yes!  The geneticists have been busy and we now have three species of fragrants in the U.K.
Common fragrant Gymnadenia conopsea
Heath fragrant G. borealis
Marsh fragrant G. denisflora
The newer books list the differences, but in the field and in my cultivated plants I struggle to tell the difference; it's all in the flower shape, but I will say that from my own limited experience the preferred habitat is considerably different.  Of course if it's one very adaptable species, with a variety of flower shapes, then this is not helpful.
I know at least one forumist who will insist that they are all the same species but I guess that things move on!

[Maren]

Hi SteveC2,

I think you meant to say "Gymnadenia densiflora"

[Anthony Darby]

Hi SteveC2,

I think you meant to say "Gymnadenia densiflora"

I don't think it would ever become a menace!?

Having seen conopsea in the wild on Cumbrae and grown densiflora from purchased plants, they are quite different. The former, on Cumbrae, are tiny plants with inflorescences about 2 cm in size on thin stems about 15 cm tall; the latter, grown in a pot, had inflorescences 15 cm in size on stems about 40 cm tall.

[Tim Harberd]

Hi There,
    Went looking for Fragrant Orchid up Wharfedale over the weekend.... almost missed them! Had to go a long way up to catch them still in flower. The seasons still seem to be very early this year!! Didn't really find what I was after... a properly white mouthed deep pink. Saw quite a bit of Twayblade, and oddly, a fair bit of Birdseye Primrose, which should have finished weeks ago. Perhaps its re-flowering after the early spring? The previous post of densiflora made me chuckle, not just because of the spelling, but also because the flowers were so spaced out! I confess to being a 'lumper' rather than a 'splitter'!!

Tim DH