A further instalment on the "Is it, or isn't it, an orchid?" question.
Photo kindly supplied by the Admiral, who has thoughtfully included a 1p piece for scale.
For non-UK followers, this coin is about 20mm in diameter. That's about four fifths of an inch in old money (though for those of us who began our education pre-1971, this 1p will always be new money).
The small brown leaf can be safely ignored, it's Autumn and it's windy. I wish the not-so-careful accidental topiary of the big green leaves could also be ignored, but, to my eternal shame, it's my fault.
The Admiral is pretty convinced it's a Bee Orchid. But as I stated the other day, I don't have the necessary botanicalness to venture an opinion. I just hope it knows Winter's on the way.
* Apologies to Nature ID for the barely-disguised plagiarism of a brilliant title.
6 comments:
I have to admit I am also clueless. However the wonderful online encyclopedia of dubious accuracy states that Bee Orchids develop rosettes of leaves in the autumn for a flower the following year. See also http://botany.cz/en/ophrys-apifera/ for a photo of the leaves themselves. I think the Admiral may have a winning hand here.
Given my horticultural education in my earlier years, my first impression when seeing those leaves was that they were leaves of a young leek plant! Not to discourage the possibility, heaven forbid, that they are the leaves of somekind of orchid, perhaps the offer of a long weekend at Tense Towers may induce a positive answer to your question.
Big smile, Graeme. Thank you for the blog nod. However, to be clear, Wordless Wednesday was never my original idea.
If I were to hazard a guess, without knowing any better, I'd say you have a very healthy onion. I like the 1p for scale.
Martin, There's a body of evidence building up, so fingers crossed.
Laligalover, Leeks are good, though perhaps not as picturesque as orchids. Then again, I've not tried orchids in a cheesy pasta bake. And you know you're always welcome.
Katie, There's a growing body of opinion suggesting members of the Allium family. Which gives me a blog idea, many thanks!
The Rosetta are you better are you well, well err they look remarkably like those shown to me on Sunday at Beeston, by Roger Cope. There's tons of em there being nibbled by the Bugsy population who are directly responsible for creating the right award conditions for then to grow in the first place. Rogers vegetative key to plants says the start appearing from September onwards.
Post a Comment