Dorset’s Wild Orchids 2022

Green-winged orchids (Anacamptis morio) start appearing in Dorset meadows in April, around the same time as the early-purples. Generally short in stature, this striking, little orchid favours chalky, unimproved grasslands.

It gets its name from the green veins in the ‘hood’ of its flowers and can be identified by this and its unspotted and narrow leaves. Due to the jester-like part of its green and purple flowers, the morio part of its Latin name means ‘fool’.

Like early-purple orchids, green-wings can also occur in interesting colour variations, including white.

Anacamptis morio is classified as Near Threatened on the Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain.

This orchid, believed to be a woodcock  (Ophrys scolopax) x Fly orchid (Ophrys insectifera) hybrid, was first discovered on a Dorset embankment in 2016.

I’d long wondered the exact location of these lovely orchids, but never really spent much time trying to find out… until now. All I knew was that they were sited alongside a busy road.

After a bit of internet sleuthing, I thought I’d pinpointed them on a map and, sure enough, it turned out that I had.

I think I can say that they were well worth the trip out to find them because they really are beautiful little plants. I also found a couple of fly orchids there and my photo, here, was the best of those orchids, although there might be more still to flower.

Here’s hoping that all these orchids continue to flourish in that same spot for many years to come.

[Update: June 2022 – sadly, I’ve heard that two of these orchid hybrids have been taken from this embankment. This is despicable, particularly as they won’t survive].

Standing between 10-15cm tall, this little orchid is the bee orchid [Ophrys apifera]. It was photographed near Worth Matravers, Dorset.

As I write this (May 29th) it’s the beginning of ‘bee orchid time.’ These are beautiful and distinctive-looking orchids, with pale green or pink petals and a brown, velvety lip that looks like a foraging bee.

Bee orchids mimic a female bee both in appearance and smell, to entice male bees to mate with them. The bee then flies on to the next plant and transfers the pollen from the previous orchid, thus aiding pollination.

If there are no male bees of the right kind, as is the scenario in Britain, the bee orchid has the ability to self-pollinate.

I’m not sure that there are as many of these orchids in the Purbecks as there have been previously. The area I searched today had just a fraction of what was there in 2020 and 2021. This might be because bee orchids only flower once in their lifetime and can take up to six years to reach their flowering stage, and so entire colonies can disappear.

Maybe it was just the area I was wandering around that had suffered a decline, perhaps due to the weather, but time will tell. Some species may just be flowering later this year.

The southern marsh-orchid is commonly found throughout Europe. It favours damp, lowland meadows and pasture, but is also able to tolerate drier habitats, making it rather adaptable.

It often hybridises with other orchids which can make identification tricky, especially as it also exhibits a wide range of variations, with purple, pink or white flowers.