The Orchids of Grays

Crab Spider on Common Spotted Orchid Inflorescence.

Just a brief blog post today and an opportunity to share a couple of photos which came at the cost of trudging through some very wet grass on an Orchid Survey at Chafford Gorges today. I dragged my hangover and sleepiness out of bed this morning and grabbed a flask of coffee, and managed to get myself to Chafford to join some of the volunteers there to count some interesting flowers.  An interesting aside, on the way to picking up my hangover at the Huntsman and Hounds, I was lucky enough to watch a hunting Tawny Owl for several minutes, flying up and down over one of the meadows at Cranham Marsh.

Abundant Man Orchids at Grays Gorge.

But this morning, Orchids, back to the subject in hand. Grays Gorge, one of the less visited parts of the small network of sites collectively known as Chafford Gorges Nature Park, hosts some of the sites most exciting vegetation. The floor of the gorge holds woodland, and early succession habitats, but today work was focussed on the habitats around the tops of the chalk escarpments. Here, careful management to prevent the succession to scrub, ensures the survival of chalk grassland with characteristic  plant species. Grays Gorge has orchids, in short, and today I spent my morning counting the tall flowering spikes of Man Orchid, a plant with small, green flowers, with a distinct, closed “head” with a vaguely person-shaped appendage hanging from it, assembled on a tall inflorescence. There were hundreds of these. As I counted Man Orchids, the people next to me were counting Man Orchids, and the beautiful purple inflorescences of Common Spotted Orchids, and discovering the curious green flowers of Twayblades, so called because they always have two broad green leaves lying close to the ground, in the woods. 

Man Orchid Inflorescence

In one of the meadows we did not find a single Orchid at all, but other flowering plants were well represented, and we had to marvel a little at the variety of wildflowers peering through the long grass, even as we got soaked to the skin.

The Meadow.

Grays Gorge is well worth a visit for Orchid fans.  The spectacular purple flowers of the Common Spotted are something of a highlight at this time of year, and later in the season the Pyramidal Orchid, a relatively common but no less beautiful species, will begin to come into its own. 

Common Spotted Orchid inflorescence at Grays Gorge.