Last June, Joanne and I went to see Late spider orchids (Ophrys fuciflora) near Folkestone. We were privileged to be told the semi-secret location by a Hardy Orchid Society member, as they are one of Britain’s rarest native orchids. Protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act, they occur at just a handful of sites in that part of Kent. The average yearly total of plants is only a couple of hundred.
It was very exciting for an orchid nut like me to see the flowers, which are quite like the more common Bee orchid (Ophrys apifera) yet also unmistakeably different. There is overlap in colour and patterning of flower parts, but the lip of the Late spider is generally darker, squarer, more serious, and has a lower, yellowish tip or “nib” that sticks out prominently. In the bee orchid it is tucked behind and hardly visible. Think a Sean Connery Bond versus a Roger Moore Bond?
The Late spider has clung on here at the N.W. edge of its range for at least 200 years or so. But it is widely distributed through France, Italy, and adjacent areas of Europe, where the main pollinator is thought to be Eucera (Longhorn) bees, not normally found in the U.K. Indeed pollination leading to seed production is poor over here, but does seem to happen via other insects and of course there is cross-pollination by human hand here nowadays too. The individual plants, fortunately, tend to be long-lived, ie 10 to 20 years perhaps. It seems this is just enough to compensate for the weak recruitment rate of new plants, and so the small colonies survive, with sterling help from conservationists, year after year.
Although old U.K. records show they were a bit more widely distributed in Kent in the past, there have only ever been dubious sightings from other counties. There is presently no tendency for them to spread and colonise new areas despite climate change with warmer winters etc. Maybe this could happen if more effective pollinators arrive? However, there are other ancient chalky-grassland reserves in Kent and elsewhere that host Bee orchids but not Late spiders. Perhaps the latter have different needs for symbiotic fungi in the soil? But could those needs be so much rarer in the U.K. than across the channel in France and beyond?
At any rate their rarity here is an interesting puzzle, and let’s hope our Late spiders continue to survive. Just a thought, though – would we actually want them to thrive and spread over here? I suppose so, but the rarity value is surely very enticing!
Photos: 1., 2., 3. Late Spider orchids, 4. Bee orchid
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