Orchids
The orchids that people most often encounter in the UK are those gracing the shelves of supermarkets and garden centres – bold, brightly coloured specimens such as Phalaenopsis, which are native to South Asia but are now extremely popular in British homes. And although you might not find anything quite as showy as the tropical species we grow as house plants, you might be surprised to learn that you can discover many different orchids in the British countryside too. A total of 52 different species are native to the UK, and almost 30 of these have been recorded in Bedfordshire. One of these – the bee orchid – has even been crowned the county’s official flower.
© Tony Crofts
As the name suggests, part of the flower (the lip) of this stunning species resembles a bee. The function of this mimicry – which even extends to the scent of the flower – is to tempt a male bee to ‘mate’ with it, accumulating pollen in the process, which is then transferred when it visits another bee orchid. However, the strategy is ineffective here in the UK as the bee species it is designed to attract does not live here. As such, bee orchids in this country self-pollinate in order to reproduce.
