These cheery little Nodding Greenhood orchids usually bloom in August, so are probably almost finished now. They are not usually solitary, so finding a healthy colony of them is a bit of a treat.
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Eine Wanderung in den Bergen und dies war eine der fünf Orchideenarten, die ich gesehen habe. Vogel-Nestwurz.

One walk in the Austrian mountains and and this was one of the five orchid species I saw that day. Neottia nidus-avis, the bird's-nest orchid.

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#BloomScrolling #WildOrchids

Saw Orchis spitzelii on the weekend. It's such a unique flower, the top is slightly greenish with stripes like some Anacamptis have but the bottom part turns very pink and each flower also looks like it has arms and legs.

They have a very strange distribution - Italy, France, Spain have some larger areas where they grow, but there's also a single population in Austria (the one I saw) and additional disjunct populations in Switzerland and several places throughout Europe, one all the way up in Gotland. Wikipedia says there even was a single population in Germany at one point in Baden-Württemberg but they built a road over it.

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Saw some Neotia cordata yesterday - the Heartleaf Twayblade. I knew roughly which mountain forest in Tirol they grow in but didn't really expect to find any since they are incredibly tiny.

And then I did in fact walk right past them but two other people in the party found them simultaneously, we had split up to cover more ground when one shouted loudly she found one just when the other called me on the phone with another spot he had found 😮 In the end we saw 100ds of individuals and were absolutely delighted.

Here's some pictures of three plants and an overview shot showing where they grow - always right out of of moss cushions.

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Saw a bee orchid last weekend, Ophrys apifera. It was growing on the same meadow in Lobau in Vienna where I saw all those other orchids. Such an incredible flower. Like all Ophrys it looks like a female bee of some bee species and tricks the males into pollinating it when they land on it thinking it's a female.

Also for comparision a late spider orchid, Ophrys fuciflora (often called Ophrys holosericea or Ophrys holoserica) which I found last month. I can never distinguish these two. They do actually look quite different when seen side-by-side but when I find one in the field I never know which it is.

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Saw a lifer orchid yesterday in Vienna - Anacamptis pyramidals (the "pyramid orchid"). It's not very uncommon but between people ripping off all flowers at a spot before I could see them to thunderstorms forcing me to turn around - I never managed to find one in bloom before. Until now! It was growing in a nature preserve called Lobau.

The flowers were very colorful and some of them were very pyramid shaped - so this orchid actually has a fitting name for once :)

The same meadow also had Himantoglossum adriaticum with their incredibly long forked tongues (last picture) and Ophrys. I need to make a separate Ophrys post.

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Found a white Dactylorhiza incarnata (near Salzburg) and a pair of white Anacamptis coriophora (near Vienna). I like finding white versions of orchids 😀

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Some Neottia nidus-avis pictures I took in Salzburg in the last few days. It's one of my favorite orchids even though it is rather common here. The first picture is 7 new plants in bud (I called them the 7 dwarfs when I spotted them) and the second picture shows two flowering plants with two of last year's seed pods.

The last picture is not an orchid at all but an Orobanche which looks similar, but unlike the orchids which like dark forest it was growing in a city park. They both have no chlorophyll and do not perform photosynthesis, but the Orobanche retained some color in the flowers while the Neottia are just a dull brown all over. And I love them for that 😀

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A yellow orchid I found today within Salzburg city limits. I was looking out the car window near the top of Gaisbergspitze when I saw something yellow at the side of the road (between 100ds of yellow primulas and yellow comfrey, but it was a different shade of yellow!) Walked all the way back from the parking lot at the top and it really was an orchid!

The species is Orchis pallens and I had no idea it grows in this area. I now have the only inaturalist observation of it within the entire state of Salzburg.

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Bit late for #WildflowerHour (very, factoring in time difference), but here’s a selection of orchids I’ve spotted in the Aude over the last week. Clockwise from top left: lady, conical, lady (white), early purple, man & green-winged…(1/2)
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Dactylorhiza incarnata (L.) Soó subsp. cruenta (O.F. Müll.) P.D. Sell.
Municipality of Mendatica (LIG, IM, IT) - 1490 m - June 16, 2021.

Notes: taxon that replace the subsp. incarnata in high-mountains and arctic areas of continental Europe and western Asia (northwestern Siberia). In Italy it is present along the Alpine arc. In Liguria it is known in only one location with a population of about one hundred specimens.

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Dactylorhiza saccifera (Brongn.) Soó
Pian Fretto (Municipality of Sassello, SV, LIG, IT) - 1077 m - June 19, 2022.

Notes: this south-eastern European species has only recently been recorded in Liguria. It is rather similar to Dactylorhiza fuchsii (Druce) Soó, from which it is distinguished mainly by the flower which has a thicker and more or less straight spur and by the bracts of the inflorescence which are longer and wider.

#WildOrchids #botanica #WildFlowers @Botany_beck