It's Orchid Time

It’s orchid time down on Newtonmore Golf Course and I took advantage of a few warm days to have two leisurely walks through the golf course and along the Wildcat trail. I managed to find all five kinds of orchids but have not yet gone looking for the Frog Orchids which are much harder to find.

Orchids, left to right: Fragrant, Northern Marsh, Greater Butterfly and Heath Spotted

The distribution of orchids was a bit different this year. There are several Greater Butterfly-orchids on the top golf course quite near the extensive sewage pipe works which has completely destroyed the grassland alongside the track. Luckily the golf course rough on the other side of the track seems to be flourishing.

 There are plenty of orchids on the lower golf course in the rough especially alongside number 16 fairway where I was astonished to find 52 small white orchids which is the most I’ve ever seen and they are spread widely. Small white is quite a scarce orchid. If you are looking for it – it’s small and white! It is quite easy to confuse with Alpine Bistort (Persicaria vivipara) from a distance. Alpine Bistort has small flowers at the top but little bulbils lower down so that it can either reproduce from seed if the flowers get pollinated or vegetatively as the little bulbils will grow into new plants when they fall.

\Left:Alpine  Bistort, Right: Small-white orchid 

There were plenty of insects to do the pollinating. The heads of the Hogweed were covered with little flies:

and the Melancholy Thistle had attracted the bees which were completely covered in pollen.

I also found a weird -looking fly lying in the grass beneath a Birch tree. It seemed rather groggy and allowed me to take pictures of it without flying away. It was about 2 cm across and had a distinctive yellow bar across the top of its abdomen and had yellow antennae and legs as well.

 

 It was easily identified by Google lens as a Birch Sawfly (Cimbex femoratus). They spend most of their life as larvae and only last eight days as flies so I suspect this one was on its eighth day! You do have to be careful with Google lens and checkout its suggestions but it can be helpful to know where to start. 

A Swarm of Orchids

 Last week - when the weather was a bit drier - I went for  walk up the track from Tromie bridge  to Killiehuntly, just for the walk with no plans of botanising.  But I can't help looking...

To my surprise I found 2 fields on either side of the track with plentiful orchids, in flower, which seems quite late for this year. Not only were they plentiful, they were big and sturdy and on taking a closer look, I couldn't quite place them in a single species.  Because they were puzzling, I went back a day or so later and took photos and measurements of some important features.

First of all, I took a photo against a clipboard marked in 1cm squares, to give an idea of the scale. You can see that the biggest one in the photo is about 30cm tall.

I also squeezed the stem to check whether it was hollow or solid - you don't need to pick or cut the plant, as it is easy to tell if it gives a bit. (Spotted-orchids have solid stems and Marsh-orchids have hollow ones.)

The leaves were wide and unspotted (unsurprisingly, Spotted-orchids have skinny spotty leaves).

So far this seems to fit Northern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella) though it is much bigger and flowering later than I would expect.  So let's check the flowers.  The shape of the flowers is really important in distinguishing between orchid species, especially the front lip of the flower.

A diamond shaped petal

This plant has a diamond shaped front petal (called the labellum)  which is characteristic of Northern Marsh-orchid - but it is the wrong colour. I would have expected it to be a dark beetrooty purple, whereas this lighter pink is typical of the Heath Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata). Some of the flowers did have the petal shape of the Heath Spotted-orchid, with a little tooth in the centre:

A lobe (tooth) in the centre of the petal

but then it did not have the spotty leaves.

So I came to the conclusion that maybe it was a hybrid between the 2 species i.e. Dactylorhiza x formosa = dac. maculata x purpurella.  In order to check, I sent the details to the orchid referee Richard Bateman (the expert) at Kew and was delighted that he confirmed they were the hybrid. Richard is one of the many professional botanists who volunteer their time and expertise to check amateur observations.

I have never seen so many hybrids in one spot (there were well over 100). Although hybrids are known for their vigour, they are not always fertile.  It seems that this strain was and has produced many offspring in the same place (an orchid swarm). I was surprised that no-one had recorded orchids in this spot before, and I have sent off the records to go on the BSBI database.

Candy Striped spiders?

It is hard to believe that it is a month since my last blog post.  I have the slight excuse of going on holiday for a week and a week of intensive gardening beforehand trying to catch up with jobs that needed doing before I went away.

When I got back from my holiday I went for a walk to see if the orchids were still around and managed to find plenty on Newtonmore Golf Course and even some round Loch Imrich. The ones round Loch Imrich were Common Spotted Orchids (the leaves are spotted as well) and is uncommon locally as it prefers non-acid soils.

Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) 

On the Golf course, the orchids were interspersed with yellow Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum).

Lady's bedstraw with Fragrant Orchids at the front and a Greater Butterfly Orchid at the back.

Orchids - left to right -  Small-white, Fragrant and Greater Butterfly

Whilst I was away, my row of Chard had started to bolt and needed picking.  I know it as "Silver beet" which is the name I learnt for it when I lived in New Zealand.  I am not a great fan of it, but the packet of seed said it was beetroot so I was a bit surprised when it came up as chard!  Anyway, when I picked it I found 2 spiders amongst the foliage. One was quite striking as it had two red stripes on its abdomen. I put each one in a small container and tried to take a decent picture - not very successfully I'm afraid.  The bright red stripes don't look very vivid in the photo, though its reflection in the container wall looks very scary!

The second spider looked very different but turned out to be the same species.

I think they are both Candy striped spiders (Enoplognatha ovata) which comes in three colour forms.  The red striped one is called the redimita morph and the greenish one is called the lineata morph.  There is a third pattern which I have not seen yet which is all red on the back.  There is lots of information here.

I read that they produce blue egg sacs, and surprisingly I found one today on my blackcurrant bush. It really is an amazing colour.

These spiders like low growing vegetation and are quite likely to be in your garden, so keep yours eyes open and you might find one.

Update - found another one today on the blackcurrants so took a better photo in the sunshine.

Around the Loch and further afield

 This post will be a bit of a look back as I have not posted for a while so some of the flowers may have finished. Round Loch Imrich, an orchid appeared by the path.

Common Spotted-orchid

This is a Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) but it is not at all common locally.  I have only ever found it at Loch Imrich, just one or two each year, and never in this spot.  The reason it is not common  for us is because it likes calcareous, basic soils (i.e. on the alkaline side).  The silted area at the end of the Loch must be basic whereas most of our soil is acid to neutral. The orchids we see most of are those that like acid soils, like Heath Spotted-orchid.  How do you tell the difference?   Look at the lower part of the flower, the lip. 

 

You can see in the photo that this one has three pointed lobes, well separated, and with the middle lobe the longest. So this is Common Spotted-orchid.

In the picture below of Heath Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) the lip of the flower is much broader and only has a tiny tooth shaped lobe in the centre.

Heath Spotted-orchid

It's not often I find  a flower locally that is new to me so it is quite exciting when I do. While walking on the Badenoch Way near Dalraddy, I saw a beautiful seed head. It was a bit like a Dandelion seed head but each seed had a parachute that was like an inside-out umbrella.

 This is Goat's-beard (Tragopodon pratensis) and has a yellow flower, though I did not get to see one. All I saw were closed up flowers.

This is because it was the afternoon, and apparently the flowers only open in morning sunshine, which gives it its other name of "Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon." 

It is not surprising that I had not seen it before as it is scarce locally. Here's the map of where it has been recorded (from BSBI site).  Each little square shows where it has been found and you can see that it is not common locally, and gets more common as you travel south.

Distribution of Goat's-beard

Here is a blown up section of our area.  The arrow points to a green square, which is the record that I sent in last week.  The pale pink one near it is a record from Kingussie in 1971.  So if you see it in Kingussie, let me know! 

A trip around Newtonmore Golf Course - just the orchids!

 This post will be a bit different as it is just a record of some of the flowers I saw on the circular walk along the Golf Course and back along the Spey. The orchids are blooming, as are lots of other flowers, so it is well worth a walk round.

I saw at least 5 different kinds of orchids.  The most uncommon one was the Small-white Orchid (Pseudorchis albida) so I counted them and saw 26, all in a particular area in the rough at the side of one of the fairways.

Small-white Orchid with Yellow Rattle in front and behind

The other orchids were too numerous to count.  Northern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella)(like the one in my "lawn"), is such a deep purple that it is easy to spot. In fact, I even spotted some in the road verge from the car when driving past the Wildlife Park on the back road between Kincraig and Kingussie. 

There were plenty of Greater Butterfly-orchid (Platanthera  chlorantha) and Heath Fragrant-orchid (Gymnadenia borealis) as well. 

Northern Marsh-orchid and Heath Fragrant-orchid

 Greater Butterfly-orchid

Heath Spotted-orchid

Another Heath Spotted-orchid? or maybe a hybrid.

There was one very large orchid which is often a sign of a hybrid between two different species. Hybrids tend to be more vigorous (think of  the F1 seeds you buy for the garden.) 

I saw several other plants which I will talk about about in my next post.

Up near Geal Charn

 I benefit from having botanical spies around the area... Geoff who runs Balsporran Cottages B&B just by the A9, south of Dalwhinnie, got in touch to say one of his guests had spotted Lesser Twayblade on one of the tracks below Geal Charn.  It was a nice day, so we packed a picnic and set off to see what we could find.  There is a public car park just off the A9 (which is worth a visit on its own account as it is the site of lots of orchids, including an hybrid one.) Here is a photo from 2 years ago as the orchids were not out when I went last week.

To get to the walking tracks, you have to walk through the grounds of Balsporran Cottage and across the railway.  On the right of the track are some tumbledown cottages which have a selection of lichens, most of which I couldn't name but there were two kinds of Umbilicaria, which like upland areas.

Umbilicaria polyphylla in the centre and the yellow patches of map lichen (Rhizocarpon geographicum)

Umbilicaria cylindrica  with the frilly edges

Walking along the track through mainly Heather and Cowberry, I found just one patch of Lesser Twayblade (Neottia cordata) with 5 flowering spikes.

Lesser Twayblade

These are orchids but not at all like their flashy relatives.  Dull in colour and only about 10cm high, they grow nestled in the heather. My hand in the photo gives you a better idea of the scale.

A close up photo of the flower shows why it is called twayblade:

Another nice find was some Stags-horn Clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) with its two fingered fruiting bodies. To read more about Clubmosses see this post.

A plethora of orchids

Or should that be a Platanthera of orchids?  (Sorry, couldn't resist a botanical joke as Greater Butterfly-orchids are  Platanthera chlorantha.) The area around Newtonmore Golf Course is full of orchids which are flowering just now.  Not just the usual "orchid field," Eilean  na Cluanaich, but each area of rough by the fairways also has a good selection.

 I counted over 60 Small-white Orchids (Pseudorchis albida) at one spot where I had only seen single figures before. 

Small-white orchid and Red Clover

Fragrant-orchid and Small-white Orchid

The most plentiful orchid was the Greater Butterfly Orchid.

Greater Butterfly-orchid

A small portion of the orchid field with Greater Butterfly-orchids in abundance

There are also some Northern Marsh-orchids (Dactylorhiza purpurella).

Northern Marsh-orchid

Walking a field next to the Golf Course, I found some Heath Spotted-orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata).

Heath Spotted-orchid

We are very lucky to have the Golf Course, even if you don't play golf, as the management of the ground has resulted in such a rich variety of flowers.  This short video shows the difference between the Golf Course side where sheep graze only in the winter  and the field on the other side of the fence, where sheep graze all year round, 

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)