AJC

By AJC

Common Spotted Orchid?

At least, I'm 95% sure that's what this is as there are records of the species from this location. The problem is that the Dactylorhiza group hybridize freely, so this could be a bit of a mongrel.

The story behind the shot
A month before this photo was taken P. spotted some orchids on a motorway exit ramp, but in spite of the fact we were only doing 60mph at that point, was unable to identify them! We drove past several times over the next few weeks before one day I managed to park in a slightly dodgy spot half a mile away, grabbed the camera and ran back along the verge to snap this. Semi-macro photography, out of breath, with cars whizzing past at 60mph feet away blasting all the flowers ... is a tricky combination :-)

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