BIRDS NEST ORCHID

If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a pleasant surprise. Now, last year I had an orchid lifer in a Beech woodland I know which I visit on a regular basis. Last year, I found eight specimens of the strange looking Bird's Nest Orchid. Knowing they grow around the end of May and into June, I decided to try my luck this evening.

The weather was not the best, overcast with continual drizzly rain - but I don't mind that. The thick canopy affords me some cover, and besides, nothing beats a woodland walk in the rain anyway. The smell of the fresh damp air, the breeze through the tree tops, Blackcaps, Willow Warblers and Blackbirds in song, and the 'patter' sound as the rain falls through the canopy, it all goes towards time well spent.

Today my efforts paid off, and whilst checking my little site, I found what I was hoping for - only one compared to last year's eight specimens - but I will be revisiting and searching even harder. Their colour means that they blend in well with the surroundings of the Beech woodland where they were growing, and could easily be missed. They are a strange orchid though of course great to see. They get their name from the root system which is a mass resembling a birds nest. They lack chlorophyll so it is entirely dependent on another plant as a host to obtain its nutrients.  The flower spike is very eye catching and can have up to 100 flowers. They are tolerant of shade so they are often found in broad-leaved woodlands, where this one was found for example. In fact they seem to prefer Beech and Yew.  

The Bird's-Nest Orchid, is a non-photosynthetic orchid, native to Europe, Russia and some parts of the Middle East.  It can grow to 40cm tall, and each shoot can carry up to 60 flowers. Plants are not in any part green, deriving all their nutrition from a mycorrhizal fungus in the soil/litter, which in turn derives nutrition from the roots of trees, and their colouration can make them very hard to spot sometimes around the Beech trees and the leaf litter of the woodland floor.  Plants are generally beige-brown, though sometimes yellowish or even white forms are discovered. The flower labellum splits and strongly diverges at its lower end. The Latin binomial Neottia nidus-avis, as well as the common names of this orchid in several languages, derive from a comparison of the tangled roots of the plant to a bird's nest - hence the plants relevant name...

I for one am certainly looking forward to many return visits, if not only to watch this single specimen develop into flower, but certainly to see if thee are more than eight this time.

Pictures copyright of N J Davies