The Plateau of Orchids

s e m a J n o d r The plateau of o G © orchids Gordon James takes us month by month through a French summer. Fig. 1 Stipa grassland in June e have a house in the cold and any plants that grow in a dense beech forest which Wsouth of France, a small here are most certainly was cleared to feed the iron ‘two up, two down’ with ‘hardy’. industry which briefly metre-thick stone walls, in a The village sits on a flourished in the valley in the tiny village whose main and limestone ledge and is late nineteenth and early declining industry is the overlooked to the north by twentieth centuries. production of sheep’s milk to the dolomitic-limestone make the local Roquefort Plateau de Guilhaumard Today the plateau provides cheese. The village is nearly (fig. 1), itself an off-shoot of a mosaic of mixed 700m above sea level, so the the much larger Causse du summers are generally warm, Larzac. Two hundred years woodland, open limestone while the winters can be very ago the plateau was covered grassland and rocky gullies, and from late March until s e m July or later it is carpeted a J n o with a bewildering range of d r o G flowers, notable amongst © them fifty-odd species of orchids. We measure the developing season from the expectation of seeing the first Early Purple Orchid ( Orchis mascula ) (fig. 2) flower in late March to the time when we walk through swathes of Man Orchids ( O. anthropophora ) or Monkey Orchids ( O. simia ) Fig. 2 The Early Purple Orchid flowers from late March, here in early April. with hardly a sideways glance. 67 s s s e e e m m m a a a J J J n n n o o o d d d r r r o o o G G G © © © Figs 3a & b Lady Orchid in April. Fig. 4 Military Orchid. After taking slightly early around the village and the amongst some rocks; we retirement, we moved here Early Purple Orchids are stopped for a photo for a year and followed the scattered across the plateau. opportunity and its strange, sequence of flowers through a At the same time many dancing flowers soon became whole season. hundreds of thousands of a favourite. Like most orchid In late March and early plump rosettes of the Lady species in this area, soon after April, while Perennial Orchid ( Orchis purpurea ) spotting your first you start to Candytuft ( Iberis saxatilis ) (figs 3a & b) are beginning to notice them everywhere. This carpets the stonier areas of bud up and after two weeks was also true a couple of the plateau with white, and open into flower spikes. As weeks later as the small, thin the large green lizards are the Lady Orchids reach their spikes of the Man Orchid waking up in the sunshine, peak, the much paler spikes started to form large swathes spikes of Early Spider Orchid of the Military Orchid amongst short grassland. (Ophrys sphegodes ) start to (O. militaris ) (fig. 4) appear, Orchids being orchids, there appear along the roadsides especially against the is a degree of blurring s limestone rocks on the edges between species, and e m of the grasslands, along with individuals are not always that a J n o spikes of the Green-winged easy to identify; we presumed d r o Orchid ( Anacamptis morio ) many to be hybrids. In April G © and Burnt Orchid ( Neotinea the orchids share the ground ustulata ) (fig. 5). The Monkey with innumerable flowers Orchid (fig. 6) was first including dwarf narcissus, pointed out to us in late Grape Hyacinths ( Muscari April, as we were being atlanticum ), Pasque Flowers driven along the road that (Pulsatilla vulgaris and skirts the plateau by a couple P. rubra ), Daphne cneorum of German friends, amateur shrublets, fritillaries ( Fritillaria botanists who also have a pyrenaica ), Helianthemum house in the village. The apenninum and Tulipa Fig. 5 Burnt Orchid. orchids formed a small colony sylvestris . 68 s Throughout May the other found across the plateau: e m a J promiscuous orchid group, Platanthera bifolia (fig. 11) n o d the Bee Orchids, proliferate. and P. chlorantha . At the same r o G And if the Orchis species can time, in the shadier hollows © be difficult to identify, the were the first of the Ophrys can be nearly Helleborines, the Sword- impossible. The most leaved Helleborine spectacular of these is Ophrys (Cephalanthera longifolia ) aveyronensis (fig. 7) which is (fig. 12). We would have to endemic to this region and wait till early June for the rest has an unmistakable large of this fascinating group. round labellum or lip, with While many of the orchid pink sepals and darker pink species described here could petals; we first saw it in early be found in colonies covering May while walking in one of large areas of a hillside, others Fig. 6 The Monkey Orchid. s the less-visited sections of the tended to occur here and e m a J plateau. Throughout the there in small groups. The n o month, Ophrys scolopax most spectacular was the d r o G (fig. 8), O. insectifera (fig. 9), Lizard Orchid O. apifera and O. fusca (Himantoglossum hircinum ) © appeared here and there, as (figs 13a & b), with its well as the much less extraordinarily long spur common Yellow Bee Orchid which starts tightly curled and (O. lutea ), which we had seen then gradually opens to hang in some abundance much down like a lolling tongue. We earlier in the year, nearer the first saw it in the last week of coast where the seasons start May on a herb-rich bank on earlier. another part of the huge Between the plateau and Larzac upland; then for the the village runs a track with next month or so, every day limestone to the south and a we went out we encountered Fig. 7 The most spectacular Ophrys thick bed of Jurassic clay to between one and a dozen orchid, Ophrys aveyronensis . the north, and beside this plants here and there, s e track lies a low hill with including a few beside a path m a J springs running down from a few hundred metres from n o d r where the clay and limestone the house. The other notable o G meet. Lining each side of ‘loner’ was the Violet © these damp flushes can be Limodore ( Limodorum found small spikes of the abortivum ) (fig. 14), a leafless Tongue Orchid ( Serapias saprophyte with bright violet lingua ) (fig. 10), and not far flowers, which we saw on a away in a damp meadow the regular basis on banksides even smaller green spikes of throughout May and June. the Frog Orchid ( Dactylorhiza The Twayblade ( Neottia viride ). In mid-May both the ovata ) can be found almost Lesser and the Greater anywhere where there is a Butterfly Orchids could be good woodland canopy, Fig. 8 Ophrys scolopax. 69 s s s e e e m m m a a a J J J n n n o o o d d d r r r o o o G G G © © © Fig. 9 Ophrys insectifera. Fig. 10 Tongue Orchid in damp areas. Fig. 11 Lesser Butterfly Orchids widespread across the plateau. particularly beech woods, but Orchid ( Neottia nidus-avis ) and through June, generally in never in very large numbers. on the plateau in just two damper ditches. D. elata The two local species of locations; it is probably more (fig. 16) was particularly Fragrant Orchid ( Gymnadenia widespread but at a casual striking with its long bracts. In conopsea and G . odoratissima ) glance it can be mistaken for a different habitat the pale (fig. 15) we found while the much more common yellow Elder-flowered Orchid exploring the steep meadows parasite, the Broomrape (D. sambucina ) (fig. 17) grows which overlay the clay (Orobanche species), four out in the open in thin rocky deposits. Both species are species of which we found grassland and appears to be fragrant and can easily be told growing on the plateau. The restricted to one particular apart by the length of their Marsh Orchids ( Dactylorhiza site on the edge of the spurs. maculata , D. fuchsii and plateau, just off the roadside During late May we found D. elata ) began to flower near the small hamlet of the parasitic Bird’s Nest during the last weeks of May Canals. The really big May orchid s s e e m m show was provided by the a a J J n n o o Pyramidal Orchids d d r r o o (Anacamptis pyramidalis) G G © © s e m a J n o d r o G © Fig. 12 Sword-leaved Helleborine. Figs. 13a & b Lizard Orchid first seen in the last week of May. 70 s s s e e e m m m a a a J J J n n n o o o d d d r r r o o o G G G © © © Fig. 16 Dactylorhiza elata began to flower during the last weeks of May and through June, generally Fig. 14 Violet Limodore. Fig. 15 Fragrant Orchid. in damper ditches. (fig. 18) which appeared shadier areas either on steep to photograph well. The other everywhere, carpeting the north-facing slopes or under genus of Helleborines, ground in many places the dense shade of the Epipactis , came and went together with blue Cupid’s ubiquitous Box shrubs, the during the later stages of Dart ( Catananche caerulea ) first flowers of the two June and into July, with and the Feather Grass ( Stipa remaining Cephalanthera E.

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