Wild orchids in May

Here in Scotland we think of the main orchid season as starting in mid-June, but after the recent hot weather I wondered which species I could find already in flower in May.

No surprise that the first was the Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula), near Aberfoyle on 22nd May.

More of a surprise, on the same day, was a number of Lesser Twayblades (Neottia cordata) on the Menteith Hills.

On 25th May we found some Northern Marsh Orchids (Dactylorhiza purpurella) coming into flower near Fintry.

By 26th May, large numbers of Heath Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata) were in flower on the lower slopes of Ben Lomond.

Just in time, this Common Twayblade (Neottia ovata) at Dumbrock near Milngavie managed to open one floret on 28th May.

Sunny day in the Campsies

Today was a beautiful, warm and sunny day. We decided to walk along a ridge overlooking the Carron Valley reservoir, where we had been skiing in the winter.

Eventually we reached this waterfall, which was surrounded by flowers.

There had recently been a rock fall which has filled in the pool below the highest fall.

The picture below was taken in May 2009, before the rock fall.

A closer view of the freshly fallen rocks.

Nearby we found a few Early Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula)...

...and plenty of Mossy Saxifrage (Saxifraga hypnoides)

The sun had brought out lots of butterflies, including this freshly emerged Green-veined White...

... and a pair of Orange-tips.

The male is above and the female below. The flower is Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis) which is the most common species of flower on which the Orange-tip lays its eggs.

Bog orchids

The Bog Orchid - Hammarbya paludosa - is a rather rare orchid which grows in scattered locations throughout the UK, particularly in the west of Scotland. It flowers from late July to September.

I was keen to see this tiny orchid, and jumped at the opportunity when, on 1st September 2002, I was invited to go and look for it at a location where it had been found before. Unfortunately the arranged trip fell through, but I decided to go and have a hunt for myself in a different area, preferring somewhere less remote when walking alone.

I hadn't been walking for long before I came to a likely looking boggy area. You can imagine my astonishment when I found 14 Bog Orchids scattered along the side of a small stream! This was within a site which was already designated as an SSSI, but Bog Orchids had never been found there before. This site in Stirlingshire has continued to be a reliable location, and this year we found 51 flowering spikes there.

Bog Orchid at the site found in 2002, 8th August 2009

This was certainly a case of beginner's luck. Although we later found them at the site which we had intended to visit on that first day, I did not see them at any other location until this year despite looking out for them in any bogs I happened to be passing.

On 22nd August this year I went hill walking with a group. The pace was rather fast for flower hunting, but I can't walk anywhere at this time of year without keeping a look-out for anything unusual. We hadn't walked far before I noticed 2 Bog Orchids beside a wet flush, and 4 more close by. I could not stop to look for more, but on the way down I made sure that I was ahead of the rest and found a total of 9 flowers. This site in Perthshire was also an unknown location for the orchid.

To give some idea if the small size of this orchid, the length from the bottom of the lowest floret to the top of the spike in this picture measured 13mm. In the Bog Orchid the flowers twist through 360 degrees rather than the 180 degrees of most other orchid florets - so the florets appear upside-down compared to other orchids. The green-striped lip can be seen at the top of the upper floret on the right.

Since I discovered this site, I was asked to check on a site in Perthshire where this orchid had been found in 1999 but the grid reference was thought not to be accurate and it had not been seen since. This was a real challenge, as the Bog Orchid particularly likes growing on moss or peat where it is alongside a stream or water with some movement, and it turned out that the whole area was suitable habitat with many wet areas, small streams and bogs. Fred came with me, and we searched all the likely areas, working in a zigzag from the first stream we came to until we reached the given grid reference. We had searched for more than an hour and were about to give up when I suddenly found one.

The site was typical - a wet flush with water trickling down it into a nearby stream.

My stick marks the location of this plant.

Perhaps because it was towards the end of the season, it had quite a yellowish colour which made it slightly easier to spot, and a further search produced 7 more flowers.

The picture below shows this plant in its habitat, with a Round-leaved Sundew growing nearby on the left.

Orchids in our garden

Soon after we moved here we found some orchid plants appearing in our lawn. These turned out to be five Common Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) and one Greater Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera chlorantha). We were very excited to have such beautiful "weeds," and stopped cutting our lawn in the summer in an attempt to encourage them.

The numbers always rose each year, but slowly at first. Then, after 5 years, the numbers started rising much faster. That year (2002) we had 57 Common Spotted Orchids, though only 2 Greater Butterfly Orchids. We assume that it takes a little longer for the Butterfly Orchids to mature from seed as the number did not begin to increase until 2006 when we had 5.

This year the number of Common Spotted Orchids has risen to 594, though strangely 115 of these are growing in our alpine tubs, having seeded themselves there and not planted by me. As you can see, there has also been rather a large increase in the number of buttercups!

Meanwhile the number of Butterfly Orchids in flower has risen to 11, with a number of non-flowering plants also present.

In 2006 I was clearing some wood at the side of our house when I discovered that I had broken off two spikes of Broad-leaved Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) which I hadn't noticed. Fortunately they reappeared the next year and have had 4 flowering spikes every year since then.

Scottish wild orchids

Today I have been doing a survey of wild orchids at our local country park. This site is well known locally for the wide range of orchid species present.

The rarest of these, and the subject of our most detailed survey, is the Frog Orchid (Coeloglossum viride). Not only is this orchid usually green or brown, but it is also rather small and very difficult to spot. This photo was taken there today.

Some of the other species present are much easier to see, including the very common Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata). The photo was taken earlier this week at another site.

The Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) also grows in our garden (as in this picture) where we have around 500 flowering spikes.

The Northern Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella) is a very deep purple colour and tends to grow in damper areas. It very often hybridises with the previous two species. This one was growing in woodland which we passed when visiting another site this week.

The Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) is easily identified by its scent, and also by its lack of spots and its long spurs. This species was also growing at another site which we visited on Thursday.

Common Twayblade (Listera ovata) grows in certain areas of the site we visited today, and this picture was taken last year.

The much smaller Lesser Twayblade (Listera cordata) is hard to spot as it mostly grows under heather or on moss in woodland. A few years ago I found one plant at the site we visited today, but this picture was taken 2 years ago at another site.

Another showy orchid is the Greater Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera chlorantha) and we also have about a dozen of these growing wild in our garden.

It is hard to distinguish between the Greater and the Lesser Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera bifolia). The latter species does not grow at the site we visited today, but has been the subject of a survey for the past three years. Most of my visits to other sites this week have been to count this orchid. The two species can be distinguished by looking at the pollinia inside the hood of the flower. In the Greater Butterfly Orchid they diverge and are far apart, but in the Lesser Butterfly Orchid they are parallel and close together. This photo of a Lesser Butterfly Orchid was taken on Thursday.

Another species found near to the site, and also in our garden, is the Broad-leaved Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine), but that is not yet in flower.

For two other Scottish orchid species see June Flowers

June flowers

This and next week are when we will try to get as much as possible of the wild orchid recording done, as more species are in flower than at any other time of the year.

On Saturday we went to a site where Early Marsh Orchids (Dactylorhiza incarnata) had been reported. We found a number of these beautiful orchids which come in 4 subspecies, and we suspect that there could have been 2 of these present, but we still have to get this verified.

Early marsh orchids like to grow in extremely wet areas, as in the picture below, often on hummocks sticking up out of the water.

Later we went to another site which turned out to be rather disappointing, but on our way back one member of the party spotted some Coral Root Orchids (Corallorhiza trifida) among grass under birch trees. This will certainly rank among the most exciting finds we have made this year, and it is the only current record for this orchid in West Perth.

You might just be able to spot them in the grass near the bottom towards the right in this picture.

The next day I took the opportunity of a walk up Ben Lawers, which is well known for its alpine flowers, and also its neighbour, Beinn Ghlas. As I was with a non-botanical group, I didn't get a lot of opportunity to look for the rarer species, but hope to be returning there for a more detailed search in 2 weeks' time.

Although not uncommon on the Scottish hills, Moss Campion (Silene acaulis) made a beautiful display all over the hills.

I even found one Purple Saxifrage still in flower.

Another species commonly seen was Alpine Mouse-ear (Cerastium alpinum), a flower which is very local and only found on high mountains.

Skye flowers and butterfly

The Scotch Argus butterfly is quite common in many parts of Scotland, and was the butterfly we saw most on Skye.


Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) is a common plant growing in the edges of lochs.

Bur Reeds (Sparganium sp.) also grow around the margins of lochs, and sometimes also in deeper water. This one is probably Least Bur Reed (Sparganum minimum).

We found Field Gentian (Gentianella campestris) in the shorter grass near the sea.

Also growing in the short grass were Heath Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata ssp. ericetorum).

This Greater Sea-spurrey (Spergularia media)was growing just above the high tide line.

Silverweed (Potentilla anserina) grew along the top of the beach.

Goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea) is often a mountain plant, but we found it growing at all levels. Here, it was overlooking a stream.

Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) is one of the most beautiful flowers, and one of my favourites.

A close-up view shows the sterile stamens branched into little semicircles of glandular hairs between each fertile stamen.

For more information on the flowers of Skye, see Skye Flora