More orchid hunting - in Merionethshire and Denbighshire

Gymnadenia conopsea - chalk fragrant-orchid

The hunt for Pseudorchis albida (the small-white orchid) continued this week. On Tuesday Jay and I joined Sarah and Annie in a lovely site west of Bala, where Pseudorchis had been seen and photographed in only 2009. We spent a lot of time trying to line up the photograph and find the same spot, but no success on this hot day.

Pure white Dactylorhiza fuchsii - common spotted-orchid

So on Wednesday I went to another site in Denbighshire where there was an old record (no photographs) and with a large group of Denbighshire volunteers we split up and had a good search of the site. Once again, no Pseudorchis. However, on this occasion the orchid count was good (and I remembered my camera) so we had Gymnadenia conopsea (chalk fragrant orchid); Coeloglossum viride (frog orchid); Dactylorhiza fuchsii (common-spotted orchid); Dactylorhiza purpurella (northern marsh-orchid) and Neottia ovata (common twayblade). As well as the typical small plants of Coeloglossum there were some huge and leafy ones in the shade -has anyone else seen it this large? From a distance it looked like  an  Epipactis (helleborine) but close-up it was clearly still Coeloglossum.

Typical small Coeloglossum viride - frog orchid

Large and leafy Coeloglossum growing in shade