The Quiet Picture

(Warning - this will be a long post. It was a long day!)

I had been studying books and maps since the winter to get an idea of which places to visit. My plan is to drive north and stay there for three days, then make my way down on the eastern coast, one night in the southern Gotland and then back to Visby for the ferry on Friday.

The first stop of the day was Brucebo just north from Visby. Plenty of orchids, that’s what the book said - all I saw was some withered ones. I walked around the nature reserve, but only came up with the twayblade and then some more withered orchids. There’s plenty of other flowers though, most of which I’ve never seen before. I guess the problem is that there really are so many flowers in such abundance, that I just develop a tendency to walk past rather than to settle down to photograph. Blasé in a bad way.

I had a list of 15 orchids (new species to me) that I could theoretically see on Gotland this time of the year. I made up a pessimistic target of finding five for the whole trip and everything else would be bonus. Except now that Brucebo was looking the way it was, five suddenly seemed very optimistic.

I continued driving further north and stopped at the Grausne nature reserve. The first orchid I saw? The number one on my wish list - the fly orchid (Ophrys insectifera)! It’s not the prettiest orchid around, but I think it’s as fascinating as they get. When I saw it among the grasses, I had to close my eyes for a few seconds and then look again, just to make sure that I got it right. I even laughed out loud… The feeling of discovery is unbeatable! And then, just a few steps after the fly orchid, a lesser butterfly orchid (Platanthera bifolia)! It was already starting to wither, but there was no doubt about it. It is strictly speaking not a new species to me because we have the ssp. latiflora growing in Loos, but all that depends on which flora book you’re reading. My spirits considerably lifted up, I continued strolling around the nature reserve because the book had said that it’s home to many other orchids as well. I had all but given up on finding any more, when suddenly this red thing poked out from under a spruce - red helleborine (Cephalanthera rubra). Suddenly five new orchid species seemed pessimistic again!

The next place was the Gräne nature reserve. The instructions to find it were clear in the book, but I think it’s time for a re-write - the place where they claimed you can park your car was anything but fit for a car. Too many trees.

But I did fid the trail, and I also found the greater butterfly orchid (Platanthera chlorantha) right next to it! Things were sure starting to look up, but I was not expecting it would be as good as the next orchid, marsh helleborine (Epipactis palustris). I was truly stunned to see it, for three reasons really. Firstly, I’ve always thought it’s one of the most beautiful orchids there is. And secondly, I thought this was too early in the season for it so I didn’t even have it on my list. And thirdly, it was a lot smaller than I expected. But size doesn’t matter, what matters is that I was looking at this gorgeous orchid!

I also managed to squeeze in some pictures of viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare). It grows all over the place here, much like lupines back home. Which reminds me, I haven’t seen any lupines here, and I hope it stays that way.

And then at long last I saw a blooming bird’s-nest orchid (Neottia nidus-avis) - just about the ugliest orchid there is, I had to get touchy feely with it to assure myself that it’s a fresh flower and not a dry and withered one. I had already seen many withered bird’s-nest orchids but since they’re brown either way, you have to get close to secure the status.

The island is relatively small, deceptively so - even with a map at hand, I still have a hard time accepting how short the distances are. The short distances mean that I have to plan my excursions differently than what I’m used to. Normally when I travel, I go to the mountains and I’ll make one excursion a day, meaning that I pick a mountaintop that I have the energy to reach in a day (and back again). Here, it’s a matter of how many excursions you can squeeze in a day!

So after checking in at the hostel, it was time for the 4th and last excursion of the day - Stigmyr. I found that the fragrant orchid was already in bloom but since we have it back home, I wasn’t terribly excited about it. But the butterfly orchids on the other hand, I was still checking out them to see if they were of the greater or lesser variety. And twayblade… everywhere! I shouldn’t overlook it though, I don’t have any good pictures of it but I figured that since it’s so common here, I’ll photograph it some other day.

Then all of a sudden - a pyramidal orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis) appeared next to the trail. How lucky am I that the only individual of a particular flower I find grows right next to the trail? I looked around but this one I found was all alone.

The orchid list for the day was rounded up by heath spotted orchid, early marsh orchid and ssp. cruenta. That’s a lot of orchids for a day.

So what does that make… 7 new orchids? The lesser butterfly orchid can be discussed. In any case, I’ve already gone over my target so I’m now in bonus-land with 4 days left to explore. Hopefully I can spend some more time with the other beautiful flowers on this island as well, and maybe, just maybe, do some landscape work as well (light permitting). Today’s sunset was a non-event in any case.

ISO 400, f4 & 1/80 - I knew I wasn’t going to get anything critically sharp and I don’t like the noise, but it will do.

Platanthera bifolia ssp. latiflora

• English: Lesser Butterfly-Orchid
• Swedish: Skosgnattviol
• Finnish: Valkolehdokki

Ok folks, this is where it gets really exciting! This is the first time I’ve ever seen a lesser butterfly-orchid. I went out just to make an inventory of the flowers I have in the forest behind my house, when I came across this one. I very nearly ran back home to grab the camera - just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I’ve learned not to trust that anything will stay put overnight so if I want a picture, there’s no time like present! It was the only one of its kind; I checked the vicinity of this flower and all I found was two dried stems from last year and some leaves, but I can’t tell if someone has nipped the flower from them or if the flower hasn’t started to grow yet.The part where it gets really exciting (besides the thrill of finding something new) is that this subspecies Platanthera bifolia ssp. latiflora of the lesser butterfly-orchid has only recently been classified on its own and it’s not very widely documented yet; not even the distribution is exactly known, but apparently it’s not very rare anyway. Thus it’s possible that the English name is not really lesser butterfly-orchid, but I couldn’t confirm this. It does seem like the same name is used for all of the Plantanthera bifolia sub-species and the same thing applies for the Finnish name, but in Swedish it’s different.

* * *

Image specs: ISO 400, f4, 1/60, Canon 300mm f4L, 21mm ext. tube. It was dark in the forest so the image is dark-ish… and to be honest, it’s not as sharp as I would like it to be but I liked it otherwise. I have some sharper images but they are from a different (=boring) angle.