Have you ever wanted to know about bee orchids? Izzy, from Portland, found her first Bee orchids this year and has written a research paper for people to read, and learn about these amazing native flowers:

Bee Orchids

I ‘m writing about the bee orchid to say how amazing the bee orchid really is. I saw my first Bee orchid on the cliffs near our house on Portland and I nearly screamed at my Mum I was so excited because we had been looking for the bee orchid for ages and I finally found them! We saw five.

 What is a bee orchid?  The Ophrys Apifera known in Europe as the Bee Orchid and it is really clever. It has evolved to make its lip look like a Female Orchid Bee and makes a smell like a female Orchid bee. It attracts male Orchid bees because they think it is a female Orchid bee, so the male comes and pollenates the flower which is really sneaky and clever.  We do not have orchid bees in this country, so they self-pollinate which is also really clever.

Where can you find them in the World? They grow in Europe as well as North Africa and the Middle East but its most common in the Mediterranean region. 

What conditions do they need?  It needs bright light or slight shade. It grows in grassland, on limestones, open woodland, chalky soils, and sand dunes. I found them by the cliffs on Portland and Portland stone is Limestone which is chalky. Bee orchids rely on a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi (which means they help each other and get help them grow from working together) to get nutrients from the soil.

What type of orchid are they?  The Bee orchid is a perennial herbaceous plant (which means they live more than two years) which grows from a big thick stem and grow into the ground (terrestrial). They grow 15-20 centimetres and 6-20 inches high. 

What flowers does it have? It grows about twelve little flowers that are the same size as little moths with a stripy, brown, yellow and white lip with green tops attached to the pollen to make them like female bees but with purple rosette wings which I think is lovey.

Bee orchids, why are they important? Apart from having really amazing flowers, because of the symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi they tell us how the soil is. If there are Bee Orchids then there is less pollution because they are very sensitive to chemicals which would kill them so I think we should look after them. 

I really love Bee Orchids and I hope you can find and love them too

Summer in the Writhlington Orchid House is a great time to enjoy the miniature flowers of Stelis species, and yesterday I counted flowers and spikes on ten different species from this diverse genus. The most eye catching was Stelis polyantha. ‘Polyantha’ means many flowered and this species lives up to its name with spikes of 100 to 200 of the cute little flowers (thanks Ed for the closeup)

The exquisite spikes of tiny pinky brown flowers really need a magnifying glass or macro lens to be appreciated and really demonstrate the beauty of small flowered orchids.

Stelis polyantha is endemic to Ecuador where it is found in cloud forest at around 3000m. Plants flower profusely even from small plants, and on a specimen plant the number of spikes produces that give a pinky ‘cloud’ around the plant when in flower. We grow the species mounted, in small pots, and in baskets, in our Cool Americas section and keep plants well watered all year. We find the species straight forward to grow and trouble free.

We do have plants for sale in our online shop.

Today our thoughts are in the mountains of the Sikkim Himalaya. This is a small flowered species which has a branching habit that eventually produces a profusion of flowers. The flowers are really sweet up close (thanks Ed for the macro shot)

We have a few plants and they are reaching the point where we have flowers for most of the year and adds real interest to Warm Asia – especially if you are carrying a magnifying glass.

We have seen the species in Sikkim at around 1000m altitude but it is reported from 450m to 2500m. We found it growing in evergreen forest where it receives some moisture during the dry season and lots of rainfall during the monsoon summers.

We find that with us the species does best in a shady spot in Warm Asia in a basket suspended horizontally so that the plant can adopt its natural pendulous habit. We have also seen excellent plants mounted.

As Orchid Project students from Year 10 and Year 12 are back in school, we can start on some of the jobs that have been neglected. The first job is pollination to produce seed, and this species will be left to young eyes as the reproductive parts of the flower are really tiny.

I am reposting this again as a couple of people were having trouble finding the original post.

I am delighted to announce that I am doing a live online talk (using zoom) for the OSGB (Orchid Society of Great Britain) on June 20th.

All the details you need are here OSGB – The Orchid House in Summer

The talk starts at 11am but you can join the talk any time from 10.30am. The talk will explore both the summer orchids at the Writhlington school greenhouse and their native tropical habitats. The talk is organised by the Orchid Society of Great Britain (OSGB) but anyone is welcome to join.

During the talk you will able able to ask questions using the Chat option, and I will be answering them at the end of the talk.

I hope to see you there. Please feel free to share this link with others who may be interested.

This flamboyant orchid transports us to the forest of Southern Laos. Our expeditions to Laos in 2005, 2008 and 2011 allowed us the opportunity to explore the rich forests of the Bolaven Plateau where this species grew.

We collected seed from a plant hanging in a restaurant near Tadd Fann waterfall  in 2008 and the plant shown is one of the seedlings from this batch. The startling flowers are probably butterfly pollinated and left to its own devices the plant is semi pendulous with the very pendulous flower spikes hanging below the growths to allow easy pollinator access. The flowers are fragrant as well as beautiful. Now that this plant is 12 years from seed sow it it has a long pendulous stem and copious roots that hand in the air making it a very attractive thing hanging from the roof of our Warm Asia section.

Aerides houlletiana is a medium sized species with a range across South East Asia where it grows in warm lowland forest up to around 1000m. We saw the species in the forests around the edge of the Bolevan Plateau in Southern Laos in open forest where it experience a warm wet summer followed by a cooler winter and a hot dry spring.

We grow the species in baskets of course bark and keep plants well watered in the summer and damp enough to avoid shrivelling in the winter. We keep the plants in Warm Asia (minimum 17C)