Orchid Hunting

Today's holiday adventures included orchid hunting on Alvaret, looking at a secret garden in the woods near Kjell's place, going to church and listening to the choir, and trying to set up a "sail" as an awning outside Kjell's home.
This blip is going to concentrate on the orchid hunting. There is a large area of southern Öland called Alvaret.
The bedrock here is limestone and the soil cover is very thin to non-existent. When I was searching for the English name of this particular type of limestone heath I found it was named after this Scandinavian example, and is known as an alvar.
There is a research station at the northern end of Alvaret and it was from there we set out to see what we could find on a two hour wander with a knowledgeable guide.
We found 6 species of orchid and several other plants, as well as learning something about this particular biotope.
This orchid is the military orchid, or in Latin, Orchis militaris.
We had a very enjoyable day, thanks in part to the lovely weather!