Green-winged Orchids, Anacamptis morio.

In mid May, Vanna and I cycled out to New Buckenham Common, a Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve south-west of Norwich, to see Green-winged Orchids, Anacamptis morio.

It was a sunny day and we had a lovely bike ride, via back lanes from the outskirts of Norwich to New Buckehnam, bypassing the south of Wymondham and through Silfield, Wattlefield and Bunwell Bottom, avoiding the busier and hillier ‘B’ road used by most car drivers. I had been going on regular bike rides since the end of March, but it was Vanna’s first trip out since lockdown began in late March, and it was so good for us both to be out and about looking at plants and wildlife.

Although the main object of our visit was to see the Green-winged Orchids (Anacamptis morio) that grow on the Common, we also saw a nice selection of insects. These included numerous Craneflies, Small Yellow Underwing moths and our first Common Blue and Brown Argus butterflies of the year. The ground was much drier than usual after an exceptionally warm and sunny spring, and some of the orchids were already beginning to go to seed.

Green-winged Orchids flower from mid April to June, normally peaking in May, though the plants can flower as early as mid March. They are quite a small orchid (described by Simon Harrap as “dainty, usually petite”), usually 5 – 15cm (2 – 12 inches) tall, with unspotted leaves (note 1).

Green-winged Orchids are very variable in colour and range from a deep violet-purple through to rose-pink or whitish. The photograph above shows a fairly typical specimen. The Wild Flower Finder and Orchids of Britain and Europe websites show a good range of colour variations, and my photograph of a pink form on New Buckenham Common is below.

The orchid’s flower has three sepals and two petals and these form a hood, which is marked with the fine green or bronze veins that give the plant its English name (note 2).

Most Green-winged Orchids have no scent, but some plants with pink or white flowers smell strongly of vanilla, rather like a garden carnation.

A pink form of Green-winged Orchid, Anacamptis morio.

Green-winged Orchids can be found in suitable places in much of England, Wales and Ireland and there are a few sites in south-west Scotland too. Unfortunately the species has declined as suitable sites have steadily been destroyed and old species-rich grasslands have been ploughed up or “improved” (note 3). “Improvement” is death to Anacamptis morio and many other wild flowers.

The orchids survive in the few remaining meadows and on commons and village greens, dunes, in churchyards, on the edges of golf courses, on neutral grassland on heaths, on roadsides, in lawns and in railway cuttings and gravel pits. The plant prefers damp pastures on clay soils but can grow on chalk, or on sands and gravels. It doesn’t like shade, so is seldom found in woodland.

The orchid can also be found elsewhere in Northern Europe. Further south, its relative Anacamptis picta, which is usually shorter and more spindly, seems to replace it, though telling the two species apart is not at all easy.

An older scientific name for Anacamptis morio is Orchis morio. The name change is a result of molecular data and the two genera can’t be distinguished morphologically (note 4).

The Plant Life website tells us more about the Green-winged Orchid’s names. Morio means “fool” and refers to the jester-like motley of the orchid’s green and purple flowers.  In Scotland, the plant’s names apparently include hen’s kames (combs), bull’s bags, dog’s dubbles, keet legs and deid man’s thoombs (dead men’s thumbs)! The generic name Anacamptis comes from the Greek word anakamptein, which means “to bend backwards”.

Many orchids can form hybrids and the Green-winged Orchid is no exception. In the British Isles, hybrids occasionally occur between Anacamptis morio and the Early-Purple Orchid, Orchis mascula. Historically, hybridisation has also occurred with the Loose-Flowered Orchid, Anacamptis laxiflora (in Shetland pre-1986) and with the Heath Spotted-Orchid, Dactylorhiza maculata (in Wiltshire, in 1994).

Green-winged Orchids are perennials and are thought to be long-lived. They are slow to colonise new sites but will spread by seed. Pollination is carried out by bees, especially bumblebees, but the plant doesn’t produce any nectar as a reward. Bees usually visit just a single flower on each of several plants, before moving on to other species with more rewarding flowers. In spite of this, most flowers are pollinated in the UK. Each seed capsule produces around 4,000 seeds. The seeds are very small and light and each needs a mycorrhizal fungus to develop further, but artificial fertilisers kill off many fungi, which is one reason why “improvement” of grassland is such a bad thing for the orchid.

It was good to see Green-winged Orchids again. We used to see them when we cycled in Suffolk, including large numbers at Chippenhall Green near Fressingfield. But New Buckenham Common was the spot where we first saw them, back in the early 1990s. We were given a lift out one evening by a friend  and had a good view of the orchids. But we ended up having to climb over an electric fence to escape some very frisky cattle grazing on the Common. By contrast, our more recent trip was without incident!

Notes

Note 1 – I recommend Simon Harrap’s book “A Pocket Guide to the Orchids of Britain and Ireland” (Bloomsbury, 2016) as a pocket-sized mine of information on British orchids, including lots of photos and information on their distribution and biology. I have taken a lot of my information from this lovely book.

Specimens of Green-winged Orchid can grow to 50cm (20 inches) tall on occasion.

Note 2 – The Early Purple Orchid, Orchis mascula, is superficially similar but its leaves are normally spotted and it is more likely to be found on a woodland ride or at the edge of a wood than the Green-winged Orchid, which grows in grassland such as commons. The flowers lack obvious dark veins on their sepals. Only the upper sepal and petals form the hood of the flower; the two lateral sepals are held upright to form “wings”.

Note 3 – I hate the term “improved” when applied to grassland. It is the verbal equivalent of the ministries in George Orwell’s “1984”, meaning the exact opposite for those of us who love the natural world. The natural diversity of grassland is deliberately reduced to provide lusher grassland for livestock, by applying artificial fertilisers or even ploughing and re-seeding. The result is a bright green sward dominated by Perennial Rye Grass (Lolium perenne) and with a very limited number and range of flowers.

See “B4 – Improved Grassland” on Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Habitat Definitions and Coding handout for more information on how to recognise this damaged grassland.

“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot.”

Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi“.

Note 4 – Clive Stace, “New Flora of the British Isles“. Fourth Edition, 2019.