Men, Monkeys, Spiders and Flies

Perhaps a bit of clarification, of course the title refers to Man, Monkey, Late Spider and Fly Orchids. Another foray into Kent gave us all of them but unfortunately the Late Spider, a single specimen, was a couple of days from being in flower. Still three and a half from four isn't bad.

We started the day at Darland Banks, a nature reserve on the outskirts of Gillingham, and our target was the Man Orchid. Well, I expected that we should find a few but I wasn't prepared for the spectacle that we found.  There were thousands and, as we learned later, we weren't in the hot spot.

The Man Orchid isn't the brightest of orchids, blending well into the background, and as it ages its flower changes subtly, acquiring reddish tones.

Man Orchid

Three Men of Kent

A pale (new) specimen - not sure.

Older flowers take on a red trim.

Man Orchids in profusion

Man Orchid

Man Orchid

This was an attempt at isolating the subject from its background, pretty much a failure as my plain green sweater came out more or less grey and certainly not plain - must try harder.

Next  was a quick stop to monitor the progress of the Late Spider Orchids, we found several but none in bloom, although one would have a flower in a couple of days. Our third and final stop for the day was a revisit to Park Gate Down, last week there had been a profusion of Early Purple Orchids and the promise of Common Twayblades. These were now showing their age but thankfully our intended target, the Monkey Orchid was just starting to flower. We counted over 60 spikes of various sizes, the majority of which were still in tight bud. Nice to see them in both the first and second fields of the reserve. In the third field we found plenty of Fly Orchids, mostly single specimens, no clumps as I had found on a previous visit.

Tight bud

On the way

That's better

The botanist who named it the Monkey Orchid had a good imagination.

A good shot in a few days time

Fly Orchid

Fly Orchid

Fly Orchid

As I was recording this blog the phone rang and with in half an hour Martin and myself were on our way to record Early and Southern Marsh Orchid at a fairly local site. We were a tad early in the season, two more weeks and there would be hundreds of spikes, however we found both species in reasonable numbers.

Early Marsh Orchid

Early Marsh Orchid

Southern Marsh Orchid

Southern Marsh Orchid

Southern Marsh Orchid