A Rarity!

Dense-flowered Orchid (Neotinea maculate)

In the car park at Tramore we met another regular to Sheskinmore Nature Reserve, she mentioned some of the things she had seen on her walks over the last few days, amongst them, the Dense-Flowered orchid, so we went to look for it during our walk today.
While this wildflower is unlikely to win any prizes for being a thing of beauty, it certainly could be called quite a curiosity. It is a self-pollinating orchid with a tightly-packed spike (2–6 cm long) of ten to thirty pale, creamy flowers – sometimes with a pinkish cast. Each of these seem to be almost closed over with only the lower, forked lip protruding from the hood formed by the sepals and upper petals. The erect stem, which reaches 20 cm, arises from two or three basal, lanceolate and, occasionally, spotted leaves. Smaller leaves hug the stem. Flowering from April to June, this plant is confined to the western half of Ireland where it can be found growing on limestone pavements, dunes and short calcareous grassland. It is a native plant belonging to the Orchidaceae family.  
 
In the extra are some of the many Early-Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula) blooming on the nature reserve.
It turned out to be another lovely day, after a rather overcast start. Oh & I heard a Cuckoo calling this morning & a Grasshopper Warbler on a walk after dinner last night.

Thanks to Miranda for hosting Wild Flower Week