We found this large and beautiful orchid one year in our wood under a holly oak - Quercus ilex.
We had cleared a foot path and let light into various areas and the following year this appeared.
Two years later it appeared again.
as far as we know it has not appeared this year. This orchid lives in woods on decaying leaves. We have only ever had single plants, and I have never seen it any where else, probably because woods in lowland Southern Greece are like impenetrable jungles.
It is able to survive years underground without flowering. The flowers are known to be pollinated by certain bee species, but if, as sometimes happens the flowers don't open, this plant is able to pollinate itself. This is known as cleistogamy. This means it produces seeds which are able to produce plants without the use of insects. Many plants are able to self pollinate.
What a splendid looking orchid, & nice to know that you'd helped contribute to its appearance through clearing a small patch of woodland.
ReplyDeleteIt was a total surprise. As I said I had never seen one before, and we had lived there for ten years already. Orchids just seem to come and go. This year we had a large number of dense flowered orchid in the same wood.
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