In Search of Orchids in Hampshire
The Thursday House Group occasionally plans events of a rather social nature, and as our previous outing to Cliveden was way back in April, by May 23rd we felt we were overdue another outing, so ten of us went by car to visit a nature reserve near Selborne to search for the various species of orchid that grow wild there.
Whereas the majority of the world’s 27,000 species of orchid grow in the tropics, it might come as a surprise to learn that many occur in temperate locations and some even in the Arctic; the UK hosts some 50 species with a few others of doubtfully natural origin.
The Noar Hill Nature Reserve is managed by the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and is a small area of chalk grassland on the site of historic chalk quarries. The underlying chalk together with natural grazing by rabbits and managed grazing by cattle in the autumn provides conditions for a wonderful chalk flora to thrive.
Up the track and through the gate into the reserve, and we were seeing orchids immediately – Common Twayblades, easily overlooked with their green flowers on a short spike, but once we got our eye in, we were finding the characteristic rosette of two large rounded leaves
everywhere.
Other normally common species such as the pink Common Spotted and Fragrant Orchids were far from common, so perhaps this spring which is early for many other wildlife species was not early for orchids; in fact, several Early Purple Orchids which would normally be over by now were still in a reasonable condition.
Despite our eyes being focussed on the ground, someone noticed a large bird soaring overhead – a White-tailed Eagle! The eagle, probably derived from the reintroduction project on the Isle of Wight, dwarfed the Buzzard that was mobbing it.
The reserve is also noted for some rare butterflies, and we were lucky to see one of them, the Duke of Burgundy, as well as a few Small Blues, the UK’s smallest species.
We searched for more orchids in the shade of the adjoining woodland and came across
two White Helleborines and a Fly Orchid bearing two purple-brown flowers mimicking a fly on a slender stem.
Outside the wood we sat down on a grassy spot for our picnic lunch, carefully avoiding the orchids that were pushing up around our feet. Just one additional species was found after lunch, the iconic Bee Orchid which sadly was only in bud and we failed to find the rare and diminutive Musk Orchid which is one of the reserve’s highlights. So with seven orchid species
located and some unusual birds and insects we made our way down the slope to the cars and a stop for refreshments in Selborne village.
Thursday House Group