{"id":15919,"date":"2022-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=15919"},"modified":"2022-05-11T13:56:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T11:56:48","slug":"mike-dilgers-wildlife-spectacles-orchid-meadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/05\/04\/mike-dilgers-wildlife-spectacles-orchid-meadows\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Dilger\u2019s wildlife spectacles: orchid meadows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mike Dilger\u2019s<\/strong> wildlife spectacles<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in Britain<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

Purple Haze<\/h2>\n\n
ORCHID MEADOWS<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Step into a rare lowland flower meadow and lose yourself among dreamy wild orchids<\/p>\n\n

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Green-winged orchids can also be found in churchyards and on village greens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

SURELY NO OTHER HABITAT HARKENS back to a bygone era more than a lowland meadow brimming with orchids. Despite providing perhaps Britain\u2019s finest pinkish-purple spectacle, the disappearance of 97 per cent of all our orchid meadows since World War II is a tragic and all-too-familiar tale. In a battle that pitched flower-rich meadows against both rapidly changing farming methods and the needs of an ever-expanding population, there was only ever going to be one winner.<\/p>\n\n

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Meadows are often considered the quintessential summer habitat, as this is when the elevated temperatures see the meadow thrumming with grasshoppers, bumblebees and butterflies. But for those with a botanical bent, May is certainly the best month to head off for an orchid fix.<\/span> At the best sites, and depending on geology and geographical location, orchid spikes frequently appear in their thousands, with green-winged, early purple and common spotted orchids most abundant earlier in May, while fragrant and bee orchids will start appearing at the end of the month. While these orchidaceous meadows may appear to be the most natural of habitats, they are in fact the product of long-term human management. Also called hay meadows, these floristically rich grasslands were traditionally managed in a low intensity<\/span> manner that allowed for both the production of a hay crop and grazing by livestock. Unlike pasture that is often grazed all year-round, hay meadows tend to be free of sheep and cattle between late spring and mid summer. This crucially allows the orchids to flower and set seed before suffering the indignity of being eaten or trampled. Only once most flowers have completed their life-cycle, and ground-nesting birds have reared their young, will the meadow finally be harvested for hay and livestock allowed to return.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This form of management allows not just the orchids, but all the wildflowers to thrive, while keeping the more aggressive grass and shrub species in check, which will ultimately prevent the site from reverting back to scrub. Another key feature the best meadows share is they\u2019ve all avoided the kiss-of-death from modern fertilisers. When combined with ploughing, this \u2018nutrient enrichment\u2019 favours the growth of a limited cast of often genetically improved and high-yielding species, such as perennial rye grass and white clover. The once-rich fields become irrevocably changed into bland and species-poor monocultures.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Understanding the need to manage sympathetically is particularly important for mercurial species such as <\/strong>orchids. Producing countless dust-like seeds with no energy reserves of their own, orchids must form mycorrhizal associations with specific fungi if they are to successfully germinate and survive their early below-ground stage.<\/p>\n\n

It is only once the developing orchid begins photosynthesising that it may become less dependent on its fungal life-support system, although many do appear to maintain this relationship throughout their lifetime. With the fungal stars so hard to align, this may help explain why a common spotted orchid, for example, must produce up to half a million seeds each season, but it is also why the orchids at certain favoured sites are able to appear so prolifically.<\/p>\n\n

The extent to which these orchid-rich meadows were lost was only realised retrospectively and is perhaps best summed up by Joni Mitchell\u2019s song lyrics from Big <\/em>Yellow <\/em>Taxi <\/em>\u2013 \u201cDon\u2019t it always seem to go, that you don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got \u2018til it\u2019s gone\u201d. However, the good news is that some forward-thinking farmers and conservation charities are working hard to maintain and even expand the habitat available for our meadow orchids. Plus, it\u2019s also important to celebrate what we still have left too.<\/p>\n\n

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A heath spotted orchid is visited by a marsh fritillary butterfly \u2013 two rare finds <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Did you know?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

The bee orchid is so-called because within the large pink sepals are petals shaped and coloured like a visiting bee<\/p>\n\n

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Top five places<\/h4>\n\n
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LOOK CLOSER<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Colour variation<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Some species, such as the green-winged orchid (above) can exhibit huge variations in colour at just one site. This species is so-named due to the presence of fine green lines in the lateral sepals, but the colour of the flowers can differ widely from deep violet-purple to rose-pink or even white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Three of a kind<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Fragrant orchid flowers release a sweet, orangey smell that is strongest in the evenings. Once considered a single species, they have now been split into three distinct types \u2013 chalk, heath and marsh \u2013 with the geology and geography dictating precisely which species is found where.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Down below<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As its name suggests, early purple is the first of our common orchids to flower, with the magenta spikes appearing above a rosette of heavily spotted leaves in April. This orchid\u2019s scientific genus <\/span>Orchis <\/em>means testicle in Greek and they are so-called due to their twin underground tubers, which resemble the aforementioned.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

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Photos: MAIN: DAVID CHAPMAN\/ALAMY; INSET: DAVID CLAPP\/GETTY; OWL: GETTY; MARSH FRITILLARY: ROSS HODDINOTT\/NATUREPL.COM; GREEN-WINGED ORCHID: DAVID CHAPMAN\/ALAMY <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Step into a rare lowland flower meadow and lose yourself among dreamy wild orchids<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"32","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"32","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_32-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_32-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_external_id":"May-2022-32-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"May-2022-32-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-06T07:45:22Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"486eca9e-b66a-4336-bdf4-70efd332feb0","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-11T11:56:56Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ASG7KnrZqQza99HDv0zL-sA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[26],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/BV6F0ISG8T464N0CHG488M3OY6TZ.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/BV6F0ISG8T464N0CHG488M3OY6TZ.jpg",2048,1900,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/BV6F0ISG8T464N0CHG488M3OY6TZ-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/BV6F0ISG8T464N0CHG488M3OY6TZ-300x278.jpg",300,278,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/BV6F0ISG8T464N0CHG488M3OY6TZ-768x713.jpg",768,713,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/BV6F0ISG8T464N0CHG488M3OY6TZ-1024x950.jpg",800,742,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/BV6F0ISG8T464N0CHG488M3OY6TZ-1536x1425.jpg",1536,1425,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/BV6F0ISG8T464N0CHG488M3OY6TZ.jpg",2048,1900,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Step into a rare lowland flower meadow and lose yourself among dreamy wild orchids","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15919"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17228,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15919\/revisions\/17228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}