SPOTTED ORCHID 



81 



in June and July. The plant is a perennial, propagated by division of 

 the tuberous root. 



The flowers are stalkless in the axils of the bracts. Two of the 

 petals arch over, and the third forms the spurred labellum. The 

 column consists of the style and filament, which cohere, and the single 

 anther is above, with a small round rostellum at the base and projecting 

 over the entrance to the 

 spur. At the back of 

 this cavity lie the 2 stig- 

 mas, which form a sticky 

 disk-like area below the 

 rostellum or third stigma. 

 An insect's proboscis 

 thrust into the cavity 

 towards the spur touches 

 the rostellum, opening it, 

 and the pollinia or pollen- 

 masses are detached in 

 an erect position, united 

 by a netlike caudicle with 

 a sticky disk below, which 

 adheres to the bee's head, 

 after it has been with- 

 drawn from its gummy 

 seat on the rostellum. 

 The pollinia in thirty 

 seconds bend forwards, 

 and an insect in entering 

 a second flower and try- 

 ing to insert its proboscis 

 into the spur leaves the 

 pollinia attached by their club-shaped extremity on the stigmatic disk. 

 Hence cross-pollination will occur. 



The flower is visited by Boinbus pratonun, Einpis livida, E. 

 pcnnipcs, Volncclla bouibylans, Eristalis horticola. 



The seeds are very small and light, and dispersed by the 

 wind. 



The Spotted Orchid is found on a clay soil, being a clay plant, or 

 a peat plant growing in wet peat soil. 



The Spotted Orchid is liable to attack by two fungi, Melampsora 

 rcpcntis and Caioina orchidis. 



SPOTTED ORCHID (Orchis maculata, L.) 



