Pyramidal orchid: Orchids of Europe # 7

We're in the height of the orchid season and with everything is so early there will be even more in flower than usual this month. This one, the pyramidal orchid, normally flowers in July but is already out in Somerset.

If over the next few weeks you notice any clusters of purple orchid spikes beside the road in southern England they are most likely to be either this species or the common spotted orchid (# 3 in this series).

Both grow in clusters of purple spikes, but even seen from a car they are quite different in colour and shape. The common spotted is pale pink, and the flower spike is tall and thin, tapering gradually towards the top. The pyramidal is deeper purplish-pink, and the flower spike when it first opens is decidedly cone-shaped - hence the name. When fully open is becomes rounded at the top. Last year I noticed hundreds of these along the M4 and M5.

If you get the chance - and obviously not by a motorway! - it's worth having a close look at individual orchid flowers. Pyramidal flowers are unmarked, whereas common spotted have squiggly lines on them.

These are growing beside the A358 south of Taunton but the highways people cut the verge while I was away so there aren't as many left as in most years. This colony is growing on a steep bank which they couldn't get their mowers up. It is a very common problem in the UK and wildlife groups are constantly trying to educate the maintenance people so that, where rare and beautiful plants grow, they cut roadside verges after they have set seed.

Don't worry, I've blipped most of the common orchids now, so there will only be a few more in the series this year.

Orchid # 6 and links back to previous in series