Peter rang to ask if I was going back to see the orchids. The orchids in question being Giant Orchids and we are fortunate that they grow not very far from our respective homes in Oxfordshire and that secret place is the only location in Britain where they are known to grow. They were discovered last year by a person living locally, who was out for a walk and spotted them growing on a grass embankment.
Last year there were nine flowering plants growing to 30cms tall as well as ten non flowering plants and an article about them but not revealing the location appeared in The Guardian.
We had been to see them six days earlier and found one emerging flowering plant and two that would be in flower sometime later - so three in all.
I had a dental appointment in the morning so arranged to collect Peter at lunchtime and we would drive not very far south to where the orchids grow.
It was beginning to rain when we turned into a small car park on the outskirts of the village, a smirrr of rain as they call it in Scotland, not proper rain but enough to be annoying and requiring waterproof covers for our cameras.
We crossed a field and made our way to a steep slope where the orchids have found a home, a slope which requires a great deal of caution in negotiating its steep sides, for the orchids grow half way down its southern side.
One slip on the wet grass and it would be difficult to stop yourself from tumbling uncontrollably to the bottom and possibly injuring yourself. Somehow it seemed fitting that the orchids required such effort and risk to see them.
Reaching the spot where they grew both of us this time, based on the experience of our previous visit, were armed with a stick each to support us as we descended the slope.
Having carefully noted the precise location of the flower spikes the last time we were here it took Peter only a short while to relocate the largest most advanced flowering orchid.
A few minutes later I found the other two which were nearby, although each were separated by a few metres and still mainly in bud.
Then came a bonus as we found another, more in bud than flower that we must have missed last time.
So now there were four flowering orchids in all.
In addition there were also two or three non flowering plants, their fleshy, broad leaves all that was to be seen above ground.
Giant Orchids are the earliest of wild orchids to flower, usually flowering in March.This time last year these orchids had virtually finished flowering by the end of March but this year they appear to have been set back by the cold weather and only now are coming into flower.
They are fairly common in southern and central Europe and as the climate warms have proved capable of surviving in northern France and The Netherlands but these are the first to be found in Britain. Speculation abounds as to how they came to be here and in such an unassuming and unlikely location too. One is that global warming has facilitated their spread, as seeds blown over the Channel can now establish themselves in southern counties of Britain but the more likely explanation is that fifteen years ago someone unknown scattered their seeds here and the orchids managed to grow and flower. Locals knew of them but said they died out and had not been seen for some years but it now looks like the orchid has managed to establish itself, reproduce and grow in the wild.
It matters not in my personal view.They are here now and a welcome addition to our impoverished and much threatened native flora and we rejoiced, as anyone would in the presence of something so rare and vulnerable - hence the secrecy which, I will be honest, added an element of vicarious pleasure to our encounter.
The flower spikes were not that high. Giant, in this case, was a bit of a misnomer for the largest of these British examples stood no more than fifteen centimetres tall, although they can grow up to a metre in height.
We slithered on the wet grass, teetering to maintain our balance on the side of the steep slope and then knelt as if in supplication and took our photographs of the pale pink flower clusters supported on sturdy olive green stems and enfolded by thick and fleshy green leaves amongst the thin winter grasses which the wind blew across them like stray hairs. They were a welcome sliver of bright colour amongst the dessicated grass of departed winter. .
Half an hour no more was all we spent here.No one else came in that time to discover the secret.The rain was our friend deterring anyone from coming out to take the air or exercise their dog and we carried the orchid's secret location secure within us as we returned to the car. A small gift of nature to cheer us on a dull wet afternoon in the Oxfordshire countryside.
Orchid update
Monday the 27th of March arrived sunny but cold. As the morning hours slipped away into noon the sun was warm in those sheltered pockets I found whilst wandering the woods at Farmoor. Primrose and Coltsfoot shone starbursts of yellow in those forgotten corners that are rarely disturbed except by roving creatures.
Blackbirds sang as did a Song Thrush, its loud repetitive phrases ringing out as the blackbird's mellow contralto notes provided a laconic accompaniment to the Song Thrush's aria. A Willow Warbler sang wistfully amongst the small star white blossoms of a blackthorn. A descending scale of breathy melancholic notes that faded away to nothing on the still air. Not for the first time did I ponder the wonders of evolution where such a small scrap of life has come to produce such a loud and to my ear exquisite song although to other willow warblers it would sound very different and convey a much more prosaic message.
Early Spring and the promise that it brings on days such as this cannot but succeed to raise the spirit. I felt energised and deferred returning home, instead deciding to re-visit the Giant Orchids, sensing they would look at their best in the sun, an excuse, not that one was needed, to go and see these oh so rare flowers.
There is not much more I can add to that which I have already written except I found one more orchid in flower today and this was the best of them all. Growing to around twenty two centimetres tall, it dwarfed those I had found a few days ago. Its flowers a deeper pink, its stem ruddy rather than green, with pale green leaves, encircling and protective at its base.
Reluctantly I raised myself from my prone position on the bank and moved further along, checking on the other orchids, settling in my own mind that they were still safe and had come to no harm, their vulnerability worrying to one such as me who finds anxiety where others do not. I relaxed as I counted all four from last week. The largest of these, more advanced than the others, was in almost full flower, the flowers though, a paler pink than the rich cerise of its larger neighbour that I had discovered today. I knelt to put my nose to its flowering head and smelt a scent reminiscent of irises, an irresistible attraction to passing insects .
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