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Today seems like a good day for a ghost story...
The first Ghost Orchid to be recorded in Britain was found in July 1854 by Mrs Anderton Smith in Herefordshire. Not recognising it, she picked it, and it was sent away to be identified. (1/12)
(This image, from 1978, c/o A.Wake)
The first Ghost Orchid to be recorded in Britain was found in July 1854 by Mrs Anderton Smith in Herefordshire. Not recognising it, she picked it, and it was sent away to be identified. (1/12)
(This image, from 1978, c/o A.Wake)
Her husband returned to where she found it and, on finding "a considerable mass" of Ghost Orchids, he dug them up and planted them in their garden, where they died.
Our next plant was found and picked in 1876 in Shropshire. At least it had its picture painted by Mary Lewis (2/12)
Our next plant was found and picked in 1876 in Shropshire. At least it had its picture painted by Mary Lewis (2/12)
In the following years a pattern emerged. Every decade or so a Ghost Orchid would be found flowering in a southern English woodland by a non-botanist, and would invariably be picked. Botanists Francis Druce, Elsie Knowling & Eleanor Vachell searched for one in 1926... (3/12)
Eleanor Vachell was a determined plant-hunter and hat-wearer who, by the time she died in 1948, had seen all but 13 of the known British plant species. In 1926, she found the rhizome (or rootstock) of a Ghost Orchid... which Francis Druce promptly dug up for their herbaria (4/12)
Many botanists back then had a herbarium, or collection of dried plant material; and many British Ghost Orchids through the 20th century ended up in them. This is the very first plant, that found in 1854 - more squashed sultana than beautiful flower, retained by @CUHerb. (5/12)
In July 1953 Rex Graham, son of Vachell's plant-hunting pal, Elsie Knowling, hit the jackpot when he found 25 Ghost Orchids in Buckinghamshire. He announced his find in a letter to @TheTimes. Despite not saying where the plants were, word got around...(6/12) (Image 1953 J.Raven)
...and many were collected for herbaria, private & public. Ghost Orchids kept flowering in these woods until 1987, and were popular - in 1986 over 1,000 were said to have visited to see one. But after 1987, despite rumours, no more plants were found (7/12) (Image 1985 c/o R.Cure)
In 2009, @Love_plants issued The Ghost Orchid Declaration, in which they starkly declared that Ghost Orchids were now extinct in Britain.
https://www.plantlife.org.uk/application/files/7814/8241/0599/Ghost_Orchid_Declaration_doc_2009.pdf
The phantom had other ideas. Only days before, Mark Jannink had found one flowering in Herefordshire... (8/12)
https://www.plantlife.org.uk/application/files/7814/8241/0599/Ghost_Orchid_Declaration_doc_2009.pdf
The phantom had other ideas. Only days before, Mark Jannink had found one flowering in Herefordshire... (8/12)
Since then, nobody has seen one in flower in Britain. That's not untypical behaviour, as precedent tells us that decades can pass between sightings. But climate change & water abstraction may have rendered former sites unsuitable for Ghost Orchids. (9/12) https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01839.x
In 2016, I searched former sites and possible promising sites, often with the sharpest orchid-hunter I've ever met, my pal @thenewgalaxy.
Suffice to say, we didn't find a Ghost Orchid. But we did look for ghosts in some very spooky places. #sleepyhollow (10/12)
Suffice to say, we didn't find a Ghost Orchid. But we did look for ghosts in some very spooky places. #sleepyhollow (10/12)
If you fancy reading the full, unabridged ghost (orchid) story, and many more besides, you'll find it in my #OrchidSummer - available from all good bookshops and, as this is Halloween, from some wicked book retailers too. (11/12) (Image 1972 R.Pankhurst)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Orchid-Summer-Wildest-Flowers-British/dp/1408880946/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Orchid-Summer-Wildest-Flowers-British/dp/1408880946/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Finally, my sincere thanks to Alan Wake and Robin Cure for kindly sharing their Ghost Orchid archive images with me.
The orchids are (a little) easier to see in mainland Europe to this day – when the world calms down, they’ll still be there. (12/12) https://twitter.com/mlopezcamp/status/1162084279272321024?s=20
The orchids are (a little) easier to see in mainland Europe to this day – when the world calms down, they’ll still be there. (12/12) https://twitter.com/mlopezcamp/status/1162084279272321024?s=20
