May Flower Hunt and Bat Park Hedge
21st May 2025
I arrive at Wilderness Wood at 11.30am this Wednesday morning, 1hr 30min too late to join our regular conservation volunteer group. Kate advises me that they are somewhere deep in the wood, location uncertain. So I decide my time would be best spent monitoring the progress of our orchids.
We have two species of orchid at Wilderness Wood - Common Spotted Orchid (at Orchid Glade) and Twayblade Orchid (at Orchid Glade and the Christmas Tree Field).
Orchids are fussy creatures demanding very specific conditions. They have a close symbiotic relationship with a specific group of fungi. Together they form what is known as a mycorrhizal association, with both the fungus and the flowering plant gaining from their natural ‘contract’. Young orchids have such small seeds that they have virtually no food reserves to give the young orchid a start in life. The fungus therefore takes on the role of food provider until the young orchid can stand on it's own two feet. Once the young orchid is mature enough the fungus gets a return on its considerable investment, being supplied with carbohydrate manufactured in the orchid's leaves. It takes an orchid 6 years from seed to full grown plant so the fungus needs to be very patient about waiting for its dividend!
The Orchid Glade individuals are probably close to their limits regarding shade tolerance so we've thinned out the trees a little to favour them. So far both species of orchid have been holding their own but we are monitoring their progress each year.
Can you spot at least 5 Common Spotted Orchids in this photograph? Spotted leaves white flower spikes.
The Twayblade orchids surprised me when first I discovered 34 of them growing in Christmas Tree Field a couple of years ago. You don't associate orchids with the acidic soils and deep shade under conifers. However, these are planted conifers which will never grow more than 2 metres in height before being sold off in December. So many grasses and wild flowers grow between the trees that it is almost classed as open wood pasture. They only grow in a limited area, unfortunately where a clump of Christmas Trees are starting to cast heavy shade over them. Time for those tree specimens to join the festivities next Christmas, with sales of the one funding the ecological maintenance of the other.
In Orchid Glade the distribution of Common Spotted orchids has been focussed for a number of years around an area of brash wood. Here the piles of twigs and branches give some protection from humans and from the feet of passing deer. I count 9 individuals, all of which have well developed flower spikes. With luck these individuals will produce thousands of tiny orchid seeds which will hopefully find a fungal partner to support them during the rest of their lives. The Common Spotted Orchid does appear elsewhere in Orchid Glade from time to time, but there is no sign of their purple spotted leaves beyond our nine stalwarts (see photo above).
The twayblades are not faring so well. These are located in a 50cm x 50cm square I’ve marked with bamboo canes and sticks. This area used to be an adventure playground with a zip wire. Somehow the 12 orchids have survived in the most trampled soil where once children dismounted from the zip wire. They are now under an even greater threat. The lack of trampling, which they seemed to tolerate, means that more aggressive, bigger species are encroaching upon them. Bramble and Pendulous Sedge in particular. I keep cutting these back but it is evident that the Twayblades are struggling. Only two have flower stalks and these have been severely grazed – slugs is my guess. Coincidentally the slugs may also be happier now that the trampling has stopped and are making their presence felt. Nothing stands still in nature, but with such a small population of Twayblades the future does not look good for them.
Orchid Glade Twayblades. I’ve circled each plant. You can spot the slug damage to leaves and flower stalks
The orchids monitored and cossetted a little, I return to base to have lunch and share stories with Jake and the volunteers.
For the afternoon I have set myself the task of watering the 8 oak seedlings I planted at Bat Park a few weeks ago. Whilst I’m there I check on the state of the hedge planted 5 years ago and liberated from bracken encroachment two years ago.
The trees are looking OK, probably because we’ve just had our first rainfall for almost a month. It was only a light shower, so I’m watering the trees by hand as well to be on the safe side.
For the last few weeks I’ve been bashing newly sprouting bracken fronds but on reflection I’ve decided that they may serve a useful purpose offering shade to the hedge shrub roots. I’ll just have to nip their tops off once they start to compete with the hedge plants for sunlight. Very exacting business this conservation. As I have said before, you are always looking for natural allies when considering the way forward in conservation.
Invasive bracken fronds erupt from the soil adjacent to hedge plants. The stumps of broken bracken fronds are blackened by ‘whacking’ but I’m considering allowing the remainder to grow and afford some shade for the dry soil.
Whilst I’m at Bat Park I find a few interesting plants and animals. Can you name them?
1. Tormentil, 2. Centaury (not in flower), 3. Yellow Rattle (not in flower), 4. Lesser Knapweed (not in flower), 5. Marsh Thistle, 6. Chicken of the Wood (bracket fungus), 7. Birdsfoot Trefoil, 8. Grasshopper (on a bramble leaf)
David Horne - Conservation Volunteer