A year in orchids: Kent

Kent:

Let’s get the negative stuff out of the way first. 2022 will be remembered for a weekend in May when a dozen Late Spider plants were stolen from a little known site in Folkestone, and later the same weekend, possibly the same people climbed Mt Caburn in Sussex and dug up several Burnt Orchids too.

Late Spiders are rare enough, and maybe something like 5% of the breeding population were dug up and now lost. Because of the way this plant is pollenated, or not here in the UK, a mature plant can take a decade to first flower.

Even worse that that, was to be shown a file from our County Recorders detailing every site at which they can be found and rosette numbers. And to think we’re so anal in our groups not to reveal locations only for those who should know better giving out site’s addresses.

One more negative issue was the apparent destruction of the county’s most recent species. Serapias vomeracea. What was a single spike in 2020, and two last year as three this year. I took shots on June 9th this year where three spikes were showing, noting how oddly flat the spikes were. Over the next week the plants withered until they were no more.

A lot has been said about reintroductions, and whether they are good or bad. Odd then, if these really were subjected to elimination that these which almost certainly were a true natural introduction, rather than planted or seeded by man.

I don’t hold much hope for them reappearing next year, but we shall see. Orchids are hardier than we imagine sometimes.

That aside, it was a very fine year indeed, otherwise.

I saw my first ever March orchid, a spike found in flower, a single flower on 26th March at Yocklett’s Bank. In what will be shown to be the warmest ever year in the UK, the season would be “early” for most species.

For the first week in April, I went to Rhodes where I saw 44 species, 42 of them new to me, as well as at least three hybrids too.

Back in Kent on 10th April, my first full day back home, I found an Early Spider in flower in a hidden corner at Samphire Hoe, near to where a juvenile Adder was basking. The next weekend we went to Sandwich Bay to look at the progress of the Green Wings. As for years I have been going to Marden for my fix of these. The plants on the golf course are stunted and wind-blown, but we found several in flower, including a single var. alba spike too.

I didn’t see another Early Purple until we returned to Yocklett’s on St George’s Day, 23rd April. It was the height of bluebell season too, and several EPO spikes were already going to seed. But I did find my first Fly spoke open in a meadow at the same location.

By the end of April, Lady Orchids were beginning to open at several locations, we called in at Stockbury on the way back from Marden, where I had hosted an orchid group meet up, and we found several Lady Orchids open, though the Lesser Butterflies were still only in bud.

On May 2nd on the way back from Bonsai, we called in at Lydden where I found several Man Orchid spikes in flower, still thriving on a roadside verge near to Dover at the top of a down.

This year I learned a new botanical term: peloric. This is where a plant will revert to a former, older version of the plant, with flowers symmetrical in a different plane. Something like that. I met up with two online friends who came to Kent, and we went to hunt down these rare EPO, of which we found two spikes at the bottom of a scramble down a down.

The “green” Fly also returned this year. Several of them again.

Sadly, no Burnt Tips again this year in the county, or at the site I know anyway. Spikes could have appeared elsewhere, but I did not hear of any, or any I can trust, anyway.

By the middle of the month the Lesser Butterflies were finally out in mid-Kent, so an early morning trip up there before the roadworks on the new motorway junction will make the site inaccessible for two years, four out of about eight spikes in flower, and looking fine in the weak sunshine.

The next day, another early morning trip up onto the downs brought the first Late Spider in flower. A week later than usual, this one spike is always first to open, peeking out from behind the electric fence. On Wye Down a week later revealed over 20 spikes in flower, and within a week the site had run out of wire cages to put onto the spikes to protect them. By the end of May, more than 30 plants were in flower here, though no sign of the mono-coloured spike.

A good year too for Monkeys, with over a hundred spikes out at PGD, and most out by May 21st, which is very early. Peak Monkey used to be the first weekend in June. Not any more.

More good news is that resurgence in Bird’s-nest spikes. At our local site, in 2019 and 2020, no spikes seen, and the two years before then, jut one or two. So the 40 seen this year was very impressive indeed, and a significant improvement on the 27 seen last year. The White Helleborine at the same site began to open at the same time, and in good numbers too.

The same weekend saw Common Spotted Orchids begin to flower at Pegwell Bay, were there were many Dacht x Grandis partially in flower too. Partial site clearance had taken place, so there were a good number of spikes to be seen, and the local cuckoo had returned again, though went unseen.

Having become a member of the Sandwich Bay Observatory means I can go onto the estate as many times as I like free of charge now, as long as I part in the observatory car park. So, another early start to look at the Lizard Orchids that were beginning to flower on 25th May, a species which used to only flower in June and July. I would return a couple of more times to see the spikes in full flower.

The next day I went out hunting a hybrid. Late Spiders can be found in a few locations, and a couple of the lesser known ones also have Bee Orchids growing, raising the possibility of hybrids of the two showing. It seems these are not wanted, and suspect plants might be being removed.

I suppose I should say that like in Oxfordshire were Lady and Monkey have produced an amazing hybrid swarm, the two parent plants are something of an afterthought. A friend pointed out that a site which is one of the very few outside Kent for either, these should be nurtured. Seems that someone has the same though over Ophrys × albertiana, even if Ophrys species don’t produce swarms in the same way as Orchis do.

I had no real expectations of finding a hybrid, it was glorious to be out early in the morning, dew laying heavy in the grass, so much so my feet were soon sodden. The LSOs grow at the bottom of the down, and the Bees at the top, I looked along the footpath, then above me on a wide ledge, something caught my eye. A bee-like Ophrys but with the sticking out lip of an LSO. I snapped it and was all of a futter.

So much so that later that morning meeting up with a friend at a farm near Ashford to look at how reintroduction of Southern Marsh had gone, I was bursting to tell people, I told my friend.

The farm had more “than a few” SMO, as the areas round the edge of fields were dotted with dozens, hundreds, thousands or orchids, contrasting fine with the yellow carpet of buttercups around them.

On the final day of this holiday weekend, was the annual trip up t the Medway Valley to hunt for the Early Marsh and check up on the various hybrids that can be found there. The multi-spike of Dacht x grandis were impressive as ever, and a good two weeks ahead of the previous year, and a good half dozen EMO spikes seen too.

The first week of June was spent in Wales, so upon our return, back out to check on the Chalk Fragrants at PGD, where I was rewarded with an unusual spike forming two flowering interflorances, though return visits proved it impossible to locate again.

June 10 also brought us the first tiny Musk Orchid, and another group meet where I had planned to show members the tiny orchid. And even I had to reply on grid reference from another friend.

We returned to the Council Offices in Whitfield to gaze in wonder at the Bee and Pyramidals there, and the bi-colour one reappeared again, which is always good to see, like meeting an old friend.

Talking of old friends, our garden Pyramidal reappeared for a second year, though hidden in deep undergrowth, I got the shears out to give it more light. And even better is that I located next season’s rosette in October this year too, which means it’ll return next year too.

I guess another sour note is the state of the reserve at Hothfield, where vegetation has nearly wiped the population of Heath Spotted from near the path, meaning most remaining spikes were out in the stagnant pools. Nature England were there doing a survey, and they were shocked at the lack of care by KCC of the site.

Sadly, one to watch.

Marsh Helleborines were in full flower early too at the end of June, and another species doing well this year, as the spikes have spread to other parts of the fenced meadow. A break from orchids until the end of July when on the last weekend we found both Violet and Broad Leaved Helleborines in flower in the Elham Valley. And the Violets increased the number of flowering spikes there, doubling the number from last year. I could not justify going to north Kent for the Green Flowered Helleborines this year. Friends went and none were photographed as being open, which should surprise no one. And so, to the final species, the 26th Kent species, Autumn Lady’s Tresses were in good numbers up on the downs above Dover once again.