Pollinia

I started feeling a bit grotty yesterday evening, withh all the symptoms of mild poisoning. I didn't feel too bad forst thing though, so drove Chria and Pete to Wicked Fen to do the suction sampling that was abandoned on Thursday. I then drove on to a Wildlife Trust site at Fulbourn Fen, to make a start on a survey there.

This is another site that has received much better management over the last ten years or so, and I was impressed by the profusion of orchids - at least five species, together with several hybrids.Unfortunately the light levels were dismally low, there was a brisk breeze and I started feeling quite unwell, which meant photography was rather curtailed.

I've included this shot of a bee orchid Ophrys apifera, because it clearly shows the yellow pollinia. A pollinium is a coherent mass of pollen grains in a plant. They are the product of only one anther, but are transferred, during pollination, as a single unit. Most orchids have waxy pollinia. These are connected to one or two elongate stipes, which in turn are attached to the sticky viscidium. The combination of pollinia, caudicles, stipes and viscidium form the pollinarium, which is transferred as a package during pollination.

I'd been planning to do some quadrats but felt too nauseous, so drove back to Wicken and met up with Pete and Chris, who were tired and mucky after a morning in the reed bed. We stopped at the cafe and I had a small bowl of mushroom soup, which perked me up for a while. But by the time we arrived home I was having stomach cramps, so headed straight for bed, where I spent the rest of the evening.