Fly Orchids and Fly/Bee Hybrids
By Charlie • June 17, 2006 • 2 comments
Fly Orchid Orchis insectifera, Bee Orchid Orchis apifera, and Fly x Bee hybrids
Somerset and Hampshire, UK. June 2005 and 2006
Fly Orchids are rather slender plants found typically in the Beech woods of Kent and Surrey, and less often in dry grassland and scrub on calcareous soils. Locally common in southern England and on Anglesey in north Wales, they are rare in Ireland and absent from Scotland. The superficially insect-like flowers comprise greenish sepals and thin, brown and antennae-like upper petals; the lower petal is elongated with two side lobes and is maroon with a metallic blue patch (called a ’speculum’, ie the same as the blaze on a duck’s wing).
Fly Orchid Ophrys insectifera, Chappetts Copse, Hampshire, June 2006
The similarly insect-like Bee Orchid is a common plant around the Mediterranean eastwards to the Black Sea but is less common in its northern range being uncommon or local in Germany and Ireland. In the UK it has a distinct western preference (and is common on the grasslands for example around Portland Bird Observatory).
Where the two species grow closely together hybrids occur fairly commonly - and the plants (whether with pink or pale petals) clearly resemble both parents, as the photographs below show.
Fly Orchid Orchis insectifera (with Bee Orchid top left)
Bee Orchid Orchis apifera
Fly Orchid x Bee Orchid Hybrids
Fly Orchid x Bee Orchid Hybrid (left) and Bee Orchid (right)
Photographs taken on embankment at side of A303, Somerset, June 2005
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