Bird’s Nest Orchid Neottia nidus-avis
Hampshire, UK. June 2006

The Birds Nest Orchid, a somewhat unusual orchid found primarily in Beech woods, is a sacrophyte - a plant without chlorophyll which lives on decayed vegetation (in fact the plant lives in partnership (symbiosis) with a fungus which which lives in the matted “birds nest” of roots and which can digest the vegetation and passes some of the nutrients to the Orchid; in return the Orchid manufactures certain complex chemicals for its partner). Such plants have evoleved to live in the darker areas of woodlands and forests where there is little competition from other species. Instead of leaves, the stem has scale-like sheaths which overlap each other and the yellowish-brownish flowers have rather a sickly scent. The short, underground stem and the mass of roots that resembles a bird’s nest store food until about the ninth year, when the plant first blooms.

The Birds Nest Orchid is locally widespread throughout the British Isles.

There are superficially similar looking plants to this Orchid in the sacrophytic Broomrape family, for example Common and Greater Broomrape, but these are found in the open habitats of grassland/downland rather than in deep woodland.

 

 

Bird’s Nest Orchid, Hampshire, June 2006

 

Bird’s Nest Orchid Neottia nidus-avis, Chappetts Copse, June 2006, and Broomrape, Martin Down, June 2006