More from the Golf Course

 Although the orchids are a great attraction, there are other beauties on the Golf Course and along the Spey. July is a great month for seeing them.

Beside the Spey looking towards Kingussie and Creag Beag

A group of Melancholy Thistle with their silver backs to the leaves

Melancholy thistle bud and flower

Melancholy Thistle (Cirsium heterophyllum) has single flower heads and has no nasty prickles at all, unlike the other thistles.  The second part of the name -heterophyllum- means "two sorts of leaves" as the leaves can have different forms. Some have straight edges and some have fingerlike lobes.

All the leaves have a woolly underside that looks white and is visible from a distance.

A few posts ago I talked about finding Red Clover on a housing estate in Inverness.  There is plenty of Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) around the Golf Course and Wildcat Trail:

Red Clover - note the three leaves just under the flower, often with a white v

There, is also a similar, less common look-alike: Zig-zag Clover (Trifolium medium) The flower is a brighter pink and does not have any leaves immediately under the flower.

Zig-zag Clover

The Globeflower (Trollius europaeus) is also blooming just now but is already forming seedheads. You can read more about it in this post.

Globeflower and seedhead

The flowers grow quite easily from seed so I am hoping they will establish in my wildflower lawn.

June is busting out all over...

There is a profusion of flowers at the moment so it is hard to know where to start.  A walk on the golf course had this glorious collection:

Yellow Rattle, Hogweed, Pignut, Wood Geranium and Globeflower

I was on my way to look at the orchids but kept stopping to admire other flowers.  The Globeflower (Trollius europaeus) is like a very posh buttercup with round flowerheads.

Globeflower

Globeflower - looking as if it has no sepals underneath.

The extra "petals" are really yellow sepals which enclose the actual petals inside.   On the track (Walk 4a if you have my book) were lots of Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus) which does have sepals - and they are bent back towards the stalk (which is the easiest way to distinguish it from the other common buttercups).

Bulbous Buttercup showing reflexed sepals

On the same track was Alpine Bistort (Persicaria vivipara).  This is a small flower which hedges its bets by producing flowers at the top and little bulbs below (bulbils) so that it can grow from the bulbils if the flowers do not get pollinated and fail to produce seeds.

Alpine Bistort

And finally.... the orchids at last...

Northern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella)

Greater Butterfly-orchid (Platanthera chlorantha) in bud

Fragrant-orchid (Gymnadenia borealis)