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The Great Yorkshire Orchid Hunt 2014

Thu 2nd May, 2024

How many species of wild orchid can we see on our nature tours and photography workshops in Yorkshire in 2014? Well, last year we reached 20 species in North and East Yorkshire! This really surprised us all. The wonderful diversity of species was amazing from the spectacularly bright and bulbous Pyramidal Orchid spread across sunny grassland in their hundreds to the scarce and mysterious Birds-nest Orchid hidden away under shady Beech trees.

Orchids produce many thousands of very tiny dust-like seeds. The outer casing of each seed resembles a honeycomb in structure, made up of dead cell walls making the seed lightweight and easy to disperse by the wind. Inside the honeycomb the seed embryo is surrounded by a hard protective shell.

Each seed then depends on a symbiotic relationship with fungi in the soil to help it germinate, as the orchid seeds do not contain sufficient food resources to grow on their own. When the soil conditions are just right, the fungus grows a fine thread called a hypha which penetrates the orchid seed and its embryo, through which it passes nutrients to enable the orchid to grow.

We are up and running this year with Green-winged Orchid just turning its flowers out in North Yorkshire last week and yesterday I found a colony of 61 Early Purple Orchids on the cliff top at South Landing, Flamborough.

If you would like to join us on our Orchid Hunt we will be searching out new species on many of our tours and workshops: National Park Safari tours, Wild Flowers of the National Park and the Wild Flowers in Bloom days. At the end of the summer we will be presenting our results along with photographs and stories from our clients. Let's go!

Richard Baines