The last time I was in England – in addition to being much too long ago – was too late in the year for much in the way of orchids to be seen. While I was in the correct place to have seen quite a variety (Oxfordshire), what remained by the August of my arrival there was only a patchy assortment of very dark brown stalks of plants already gone to seed.
The next time I visit – and goddess willing that will be as soon as reasonably possible and in the late Spring or early-to-mid Summer – I’ll be carrying a copy of Britain’s Orchids: A Field Guide to the Orchids of Great Britain and Ireland. Written by Sean Cole and Mike Waller, and with support from the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, this most recent addition to the Princeton University Press WILDGuides series offers interested readers a complete, easily portable and thoroughly field-worthy reference to all the fifty-one native species or wild orchids to be found in it’s title geographic range, as well as twelve more of uncertain origin, and a collection of noteworthy hybrids and variants.
Being now into early April as we are at the time of this writing, I encourage all presently fortunate enough to be in Great Britain or Ireland to enquire further into this new guidebook in preparation for when the lockdown eases and you’re once again at liberty to go afield in search of the remarkable orchidaceous beauty those lands have to offer. The rest of us will simply have to content ourselves with the book’s exquisite photographic images and Sarah Stribbling‘s lovely included illustrations whilst dreaming of the day when we too may one day see these botanical treasures for ourselves.
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