The blossom bears a resemblance to a feeding bee. What is less well known is that it also smells like the bee with which it co-evolved. Unfortunately for the Bee Orchid, the right species of bee is not present in this country so plants are self-fertile here.
The seeds are very small and produced in the thousands. They are so tiny that they can be blown for long distances on the wind. It is not uncommon to find them popping up in quite unexpected places, often in disturbed ground with calcareous soil.
The distribution map shows that they are well distributed across most of lowland England and Wales, and is one species that may be expanding its range northwards.
Hi guys, have added your link to VC41 Dragons & GRC. Cheers Jake.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jake - much appreciated! It would be good to keep a trickle of posts going up on here over the winter so if there is anything you want to add please go ahead.
ReplyDeleteAdam
Adam, you will have to send me an invite so I can post here. Cheers J.
ReplyDeleteI've reset the defaults so it allows anyone to post now! Let meknow if it doesn't work....
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