Common spotted orchids photographed in the reserve by Gillian Newbury.
Please don’t pick our flowers. If you see somebody picking flowers in the reserve, ask them to stop: it is against the law to pick wildflowers in a Nature Reserve.
Pyramidal orchid and bee orchid photographed in the reserve by Simon Knight .
I wonder how the bee orchid evolved to look as it does!
It entices a male bee to try to copulate with it, thus either bringing pollen or taking it away. I am not sure, but the orchid may also mimic the female bees pheromones. The UK is right on the edge of the bee orchid’s range and the bee it evolved to mimic doesn’t live here; instead the British bee orchid relies on self-fertilisation.
They are looking beautiful down there at the moment.
They are. Some years are just perfect for orchids and this must be one of them.