Common Spotted Orchid in seed. This Common Spotted orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsii, has started seeding quite early this year. It was also one of our earliest plants to flower, in fact it was as early as the Green Winged orchids this year. It has not only set a tremendous amount of seed but it has also started shedding it as well. One of the reasons for pointing this out is a simple excuse to show a photograph of a plant which is part of a project to more clearly define the longevity of individual plants. In this case it was seed three years ago. It is unlikely that it would have achieved this scale of plant growth if it had started as a seed in the meadow, but we grew the seed in culture ourselves, thereby giving it a head start. Another interesting feature of this orchid is that, like all Common Spots, at this time of the year the leaves lose their purple patterns.
The same orchid in April This particular plant as you can see has no obvious colour left, but this second picture on the left, shows exactly the same plant, in April this year, and the same leaves that can be seen surrounding the flower spike. As you can see, even though the plant started with a spectacular leaf pattern it has now disappeared. The patterned leaf in this picture is the same leaf that appears on the left of the flower spike in the top picture. I think we shall investigate these things further.
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