Friday, June 04, 2010

Wild Orchid Post #1 2010

Over the last few years, in the spring, I usually post a few pictures of wild orchids of this area. I am intensely interested in the biology and the ecology and I keep discovering species that I have never seen before.,.
I was biking on Tuesday and I happened to see this beauty out of the side of my eye. I got home and looked it up and found it was a variety I had never seen before, in fact, it is pretty rare in this part of Europe. 
So today, I took off on my bike to try to find it with a camera.It was pretty hot today, about 87 farenheit...It was a 15 kilometer ride back to the location, but after a few minutes, I found the orchid.
Its common name is Orchs Verdatre, the latin name is Plantanthera chlorantha. It took me a little while to classify it because it is a variation of the more common type. The flowers are much bigger and white  than the common variety. The give away is the green tinted lower petal. which differentates it from the more common Plantatherea bifola.
I have some other pics I will post soon, including a pretty spectacular Orchis bouc, which is just beginning to bloom in my front garden...it just spontaeously appeared over my septic tank!

2 comments:

mud_rake said...

Great find, Microdot! It looks nothing like the wild orchids in this neck of the woods.

As you may recall, here in the bogs of the former glacial lakes, grow the Yellow Lady's Slipper Orchid,
Cypripedium pubescens. Isn't the species, pubescens, an interesting classification?

Here's a photo of our rare and wild orchid.

microdot said...

Ahh, but there are quite a few others in your neck of the woods. I recall the spiral orchid (Goodyere repens)..I found it at Oak Openings in the 70's...( I also knew the place to find morels at Oak Openings, but that was 25 years ago...)and a beautiful pink orchid I can't recall the name of as well a few saprophytic, parasitic orchids with no chlorophyll. This is the season. A good reason for a hike. I had a great book that is in storage still called Orchids of The Great Lakes...The last time I looked, there was copy in the Yoledo Library.

Thanks for the picture.