Post by SidW on Jun 11, 2009 9:30:35 GMT -5
This is the season for orchids, and the Baltic island of Öland is a wonderful
place to see them.
This meadow dates from the middle ages and is still managed in the old way,
which gives the orchids the best chances of survival.
The yellow things are buttercups! The orchids (military orchids, Orchis militaris)
are the faint mauve blobs. Close up they look like this:
I'll include the latin names so you can look them up in other languages if you need to.
There were others too.
This is the brid's nest orchid (Neottia nidus-avis), hidden away in a dark corner:
The common twayblade (Listera ovata), buds just opening. It's easily missed
as it's green against green:
The early purple orchid (Orchis mascula) were mostly faded now, but there were
still one or two in the shade beneath bushes:
And even one example of its rarer white variant (Orchis mascula alba):
The lesser butterfly orchid (Platanthera biflia) was also still hard to distinguish
as its buds were only just opening. Later on its white flowers stand out more clearly:
Canon EOS 20D, EF 100mm/2.8 macro, ISO100.
place to see them.
This meadow dates from the middle ages and is still managed in the old way,
which gives the orchids the best chances of survival.
The yellow things are buttercups! The orchids (military orchids, Orchis militaris)
are the faint mauve blobs. Close up they look like this:
I'll include the latin names so you can look them up in other languages if you need to.
There were others too.
This is the brid's nest orchid (Neottia nidus-avis), hidden away in a dark corner:
The common twayblade (Listera ovata), buds just opening. It's easily missed
as it's green against green:
The early purple orchid (Orchis mascula) were mostly faded now, but there were
still one or two in the shade beneath bushes:
And even one example of its rarer white variant (Orchis mascula alba):
The lesser butterfly orchid (Platanthera biflia) was also still hard to distinguish
as its buds were only just opening. Later on its white flowers stand out more clearly:
Canon EOS 20D, EF 100mm/2.8 macro, ISO100.
