Abington Naturewatch: Orchids on Granta Park, including a rare Wasp Orchid

Darren Bast (who works on Granta Park) has been spotting orchids on site for a number of years now, and this year found around 76 Bee Orchid spikes. Unusually, amongst them this year, he identified a single flower spike of the rare Wasp Orchid.

The Wasp Orchid (Ophrys apifera var trollii) is one of the six recognised variants of the Bee Orchid, looking similar but with longer thinner petals, giving the flowers a 'Wasp like' appearance. A large Common Spotted Orchid spike and Pyramidal Orchid were also seen. Darren kindly showed these flowers to a small group of ANW folks on Thursday, before they faded.

Photo credits: Darren Bast