Tuesday 29 April 2008

Orchids galore

In 2007 with the introduction of the farm worker naturalist we identified 2.5 has of the farm to manage specifically for wild flowers. The majority of these areas are unimproved grassland, south facing and with limestone outcrops.

This winter was exceptionally dry followed by a fair bit of rain in late March and April resulting is an abundance of wild flowers this spring.

Of the 9 species of orchids we identified on the farm last year 6 of them are now in flower and can be seen from the farm trail, including this Woodcock orchid shown in the photo.

1 comment:

Sebastian Burch said...

Hello!

There is so many orchids out here at this time of the year!

The other day I walked up from Arriondas, by "La Senda Verde", what was my surprise but to find a completely new orchid.

A Giant Orchid (Barlia robertiana) an impressive species.

Here a link to it in the web page of Naturaleza, flora y fauna Cantábrica.


http://www.asturnatura.com/especie/barlia-robertiana.html

Love
Seb

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Hotel Posada del Valle is a small hotel in Asturias Northern Spain surrounded by its own organic farm and where we are passionate about organic farming, food, and sustainable livelihoods. In this Blog those of us who live and work at Hotel Posada del Valle open a door to share with all of you who are interested in what we are doing.