Week 21/B: Brilliant, Bountiful, Box Moor Bee Orchids

My Tuesday had begun with blue sky but something of a dark mood. The discovery of the fantastic little Bee Orchids (Ophrys apifera) not only lifted my spirits but filled the morning with new colours, shapes and textures (how velvety does that “bee” flower look?!). As I mentioned in the previous post, there were more than 92 spikes in this one small area! From what I understand, it is considered rare locally and hasn’t perviously been reported at this site. I got utterly engrossed in photographing them. Lying belly-down in rabbit droppings was neither here nor there. It wasn’t until I needed the loo, my stomach was rumbling, my back was hurting, my elbows were sore (from propping myself up) and my knees were pretty much welded bent, that I reluctantly (and slowly) creaked my way to standing and headed home for a bacon butty. Here are a few memories from that morning… [as ever, higher resolution images in a set on Flickr here]

It seems that the Bee Orchid isn’t rare per se, but the habitat it can especially thrive in is becoming increasingly so i.e. open grasslands and, frequently, chalk (and limestone) grasslands. This is a reason why it isn’t seen locally. Box Moor Trust land is one of the few places left for it to colonise. It’s a perennial, dependant on mycorrhizal fungi for nutrients, and is self-pollinating in the UK (we don’t have the right bees here (honestly!)). Travel to the balmy Mediterranean and you’ll encounter the patently very sensible (but easily fooled) Solitary bee (Eucera). This pollinates plants in the southern regions by falling for the mimicry of the look-a-like “bee” flower. Males are drawn in and even “attempt to mate with [the flower], transferring pollen in the process” (silly Bee!). Self-pollination is just as interesting. Basically, as the flower develops, the pollinia [two yellow blobs of pollen grains] are released from the green, curved arch in which they are held (this is the anther, the male part, and the structure you can see overhanging the “bee”). They then hang loosely on yellow threads (caudicles) and are blown against the receptive surface of the stigma (the female part), et voilà! Just below the stigma, at the base of the reproductive column, is the ovary (the part of the flower that contains embryonic seeds, called ovules). According to Wikipedia, this Orchid is unusual in that “in some years they appear in great numbers, then sometimes only reappear after an absence of many years.” How ever it reproduces, it is clearly a plant to be made the most of whilst it is around!

I was fortunate to be able to return to the Bee Orchids on Thursday morning for a short time, with a few rough ideas for compositions. I wanted to capture the context and the proportions. I also hoped to capture the texture of the “bee”, show the pollinia and also photograph a bud which was in the process of opening. I hope you enjoy the results as much as I did achieving them…

Velvety "bee" & Pollinia pair

Bud opening in progress

Compared to Dr Pepper!

Week 21/A: The Power of a Little Flower

Tuesday morning the sky was blue, the sun was shining and I was feeling absurdly overwhelmed by the possibilities for a walk around Box Moor. Blue skies in particular are so rare that you feel as though you have to ring every last ounce of potential out of days like that. Just the thought of it can be exhausting!

I arrived at Dellfield with only one aim. To photograph the Oak. Good light and blue sky is like being faced with an open goal. Too many options, too rare an opportunity to miss: bound to mess it up. Anyway, having snapped the Oak, I took a wander around the meadow. A Silver Y (Autographa gamma) fluttered up from the grass, numerous Burnet Companions floated by, and there were mating Soldier Beetles (Cantharis rustica) and Scorpion flies (Panorpa communis) galore. I found a single flowering Poppy and a snazzy Five- or Six-Spot Burnet caterpillar (not sure which). Photographing them was like something out of a Laurel and Hardy sketch - every time the breeze died down, I’d just about compose the shot, be ready to fire, and a puff of wind would scupper my efforts (although not entirely, as you can see). Over and over, this happened until I eventually gave up, feeling increasingly paralysed by the potential of the day and my inability to capitalise on it.


I moved on from Dellfield and up to Preston Hill to catch up with the Broad-bodied Chasers. One male was definitely still around. I then carried on through Hay Wood and onto Bovingdon Reach. My idea was to walk to Ramacre Wood and check again for Spotted Flycatchers. Little did I know my morning was about to be transformed by the discovery of a little flower. There I was, somewhat dejected and flummoxed and, down there, just to my right, what did I spy? A Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera)! I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. But, true enough, there it was.....and then, there was another. And another. And another. And this went on and on. In one small area, there must have been around 30 spikes of Bee Orchids*. Dejection was quickly replaced by pure joy! From what I can gather, they have not been reported here before and are considered rare for the area. I suspected they were something special when I found them and I finally knew how I was going to best use this beautiful morning of near perfect light and potential: photographing the Box Moor Bee Orchids. And, they deserve a post of their own...

*I went back to Bovingdon Reach on Wednesday evening, sure that I must have over-estimated the number of Bee Orchids. I did a fairly thorough count and totalled 92 spikes!

Left, 19 February 2014; Right, 10 June 2014