Wednesday 30 May 2018

Man & Military Orchids in deepest Suffolk

Having been kindly given detailed direction for the only known colony of Man Orchids, I ventured deep into my home county of Suffolk to photograph them. Parking opposite, I walked up the road and they were immediately spotted on the right roadside verge (where a sign was up showing roadside nature reserve) in 2 groups one group comprising with 39 plants and a few yards further along, 20 further plants with a single tall plant spike on the opposite left hand side of the road. All the plants save for one, had finished flowering, so I concentrated on the single flowering plant, which was in the shade a little so a little fill-in flash was required to illuminate this fine subject. I then drove to the second ride 306, to go to the Rex Graham reserve and was incredibly fortunate to see 2 ladies from the Friends of Thetford Forest Flora group who were there to count the number of spikes and they very kindly drove me down top the locked cage where all the plants were and I had the incredible good fortunate to have the plants to myself photographing them from the boardwalk. Numbers appeared the same as in my previous visits but it was immediately apparent there were a lot more Common Twayblade spikes.

2 comments:

Chris said...

Hi Peter, I counted 73 Man Orchid spikes when I went on Saturday. As they're the only ones in Suffolk they must be the same ones! Hope you're well
Cheers
Chris

Peter Ransome said...

Hi Chris, tv.well thanks, I always seem to undercount these Orchids!