Journal Number 92
September 2004

BRITISH ORCHIDS

Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera Hudson)
By David Lang

Most British botanists would maintain that they "know a Bee Orchid when they see it", but I hope to show that, while in essence that is true, the diversity at varietal level is astonishing, with at least nine colour or morphological forms.

The Bee Orchid is widely distributed across England, the coastal areas of north and south Wales, and in scattered localities across Ireland, especially in the limestone area of the Burren. It is now absent from Scotland. In England and Wales it is a plant of well drained calcareous soils, in diverse habitats such as grassland, scrub, sand dunes, and limestone pavement and quarries. It readily colonises new habitat such as the verges of new roads and motorways, and industrial waste ground where weathering has led to a basic substrate. In these sites it can suddenly appear in considerable numbers (Figs. 16, 17) , thereafter declining slowly as competitive vegetation takes over. The Bee Orchid flowers in June, the spike 15-50cm high rising from a rosette of five to six greyish-green, strap-shaped leaves which are often 0withered at the tip. There are two sheathing stem leaves and long, leafy bracts.Most plants bear two or three flowers, rarely as many as ten. The three pink sepals each have a prominent green central vein. The upper petals are shorter, brownish in colour, with their margins rolled inwards. The labellum is convex and three-lobed, the two lateral lobes forming furry brown humps, while the central lobe is velvety in texture, yellow at the base and marked with dark brown bands. The appendage at the tip of the central lobe folds back underneath as the flower opens.

The column is prominent and beaked, the two yellow pollinia lying inside pouches with their caudicles running down in two grooves. Soon after the flowers open, the caudicles dry and shrink, dragging the pollinia out of their pouches so that they swing downwards under their own weight and land squarely on the stigma. This is clearly visible in the close-up photograph of the normal form, and occurs on nearly every occasion so that, while apparently adapted by mimicry for pollination by bees, the Bee Orchid is usually self-pollinated. Most plants are monocarpic, although there is a record of a plant flowering for eight consecutive seasons, and maturity is reached in five years from seed.

Hybridisation is very rare, although the hybrid with the Fly Orchid (Ophrys insectifera) has been recorded near Bristol and in west Sussex, and the hybrid with Late Spider Orchid (Ophrys fuciflora) has been recorded unreliably from Kent.

Var. atrofuscus In this colour variety the entire labellum is a dark chocolate brown colour devoid of markings. Recorded in west Sussex for the first time in 2001, it may have previously occurred in Hertfordshire (Fig. 18).

Var. belgarum Named after the Roman name for Winchester where it was first discovered in 1998. The flowers are small, lacking the furry side lobes of the labellum and marked with a yellow band across the middle of the labellum. Since it was first described, it has been recorded widely across southern England from Somerset to Essex, and north to Northamptonshire (Fig. 19).

Var. friburgensis First recorded in Wiltshire in 1984, the site was destroyed. Subsequently it was found in Somerset, where it still flourishes. The two upper petals are sepalloid, giving the flower an appearance reminiscent of a tiny Cymbidium (Fig. 20).

Var. bicolor A rare colour variety where the labellum is divided horizontally into a pale yellow basal half and a uniform red-brown distal half. Recorded from Warwickshire, north Essex and Dorset (Fig. 21).

Var. chlorantha The flowers lack the usual red-brown pigmentation, having a greenish-yellow labellum and white sepals. Recorded from Sussex, Middlesex, north Essex and south Yorkshire (Fig. 22).

Var. trollii This variety, known as the `Wasp Orchid', is distinguished by a labellum lacking the furry side lobes, having a very long, pointed central lobe barred across with brown and yellow. Long known from Gloucestershire, it has also been recorded in Dorset, Surrey, Suffolk and Nottinghamshire (Fig. 23).

Peloric form 1 Known only from one site in East Sussex, this form was first described and photographed in 1919 on the chalk downs near Lewes. It continued to appear in most years until 1940, when the area was ploughed in response to wartime government instructions for farmers to grow more food! I refound it in 1969 and 1971, but it has not flowered since. It is a bizarre form, lacking the `bee' labellum, which is replaced by a plain pink structure like a sepal (Fig. 24).

Peloric form 2 A strange variety where the petals are replaced by sepals, a process known as homoesis, which gives the flower a spurious symmetry. I found it for the first time in Britain in 1990, when ten plants flowered in a sand dune nature reserve in Glamorgan in south Wales. It flowered again in 1993 (Fig. 25).

Many of these records of varieties have surfaced as the result of articles published in the botanical press, when readers recognised from the photographs that they had also seen the "new" strange variety. Subsequently orchid enthusiasts have taken to looking more closely at what they find, and we now realise just how much variety exists within this species in Britain. Albeit, they are all still Bee Orchids, and do not merit more than varietal status.

Bibliography
Edmondson T. (1979) Ophrys apifera Huds. in artificial habitats. Watsonia 12: 337-8.
Ettlinger DMT. (1988) A new variety of Ophrys apifera Hudson. (Orchidaceae) Watsonia 22: 105-107.
Hill DA. (1978) A seven year study of a colony of bee orchids (Ophrys apifera Hudson). Watsonia 12: 162-3.
Hilton T. (1900) Ophrys apifera Beachy Head. Pale-coloured Bee-orchis. Sci-Gossip N.S VII: 54.
Lang DC. (1989) A guide to the wild orchids of Britain and Ireland. Oxford University Press.
Lang DC. (2001) Wild orchids of Sussex. Pomegranate Press.
Preston CD, Pearman DA, Dines TD. (2002) New atlas of the British and Irish flora. Oxford University Press.
Summerhayes VS. (1951) Wild orchids of Britain. Collins.
Wells TCE, Farrell L. (1984) Bee Orchid Survey. Watsonia 15: 172-3.
Willis AJ. (1980) Ophrys apifera Huds. x 0. insectifera L. a natural hybrid in Britain. Watsonia 13: 97-102.
Wilson M. (1980) The flowering habits of Ophrys apifera. Orchid Rev. 88: 94-6.