Green-winged orchid

After the rain came the early morning mist hugging the low ground, the Knott standing above it. I watched the sun climb into this narrow band of cloud with strange light above and below (probably worth looking at in large).

The main objective for the morning was to track down the second orchid species of the season, the green-winged (Anacamptis morio).  We found a clump where cattle are grazing the limestone grassland below Heathwaite, with scattered early purples round about.  Perhaps there are more, but I didn't stay long to find them as Gus and I were both hungry for breakfast, and this walk is pushing Gus a little beyond his limit now.

This one is in its prime, though it had already had one flowering stem somehow severed. The green-winged is superficially similar to the early purple in colour and flower shape. It's more compact, more inclined to clumping, it has unspotted leaves, and green-veined sepals that are just visible in the photo. Modern genetics using DNA sequencing has turned the classification of orchids on its head. The green-winged is not as closely related to the early purple as originally thought, belonging in the Anacamptis genus of the fragrant orchid (while the fragrant orchid itself is now recognised as three distinct species, all of which occur in Cumbria).

This is the second in my Cumbria orchid series of blips - not that I am doing the series this year after all. One reason for that is that I don't want to drag poor Gus round all sorts of new places, he gets too tired now if the walk is over two miles.

In the evening we went to see Alison, recovering after eye surgery a week ago. We went back out to see the bluebell wood that she first introduced us to last year. It was wonderful that she can see the bluebells with much greater clarity now.

Back-blipped on 29th April 2019.