{"id":16980,"date":"2023-07-31T14:49:47","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T14:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/?p=16980"},"modified":"2025-01-10T15:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:56:08","slug":"blame-it-on-wild-orchids-by-paul-harcourt-davies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/31\/blame-it-on-wild-orchids-by-paul-harcourt-davies\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame it on Wild Orchids – by Paul Harcourt Davies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) Sella Massif, Dolomites, Italy, July.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Being a generalist in the world of natural history photography is no bad thing but having a \u2018speciality\u2019 can be of particular benefit in giving you something upon which to hang your evolution as a nature photographer<\/em>.<\/em><\/h3>\n

-Paul Harcourt Davies<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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There is one element throughout my life that seems to link apparently diverse events. It has influenced my progress as a photographer and writer, where I choose to live and more. It is a passion for wild orchids: their diversity and form, their function and the intricacies of their lives that led me initially to take up photography seriously and subsequently learn all I could to reveal their secret lives.<\/h2>\n

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The Start<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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The one that started it all: a Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) photographed in South Wales, UK.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To begin at the beginning as another Welshman said, my earliest clear memories include a golden-ringed dragonfly hawking over a brook and butterflies crowding the michaelmas daisies which my father grew; small tortoiseshell, red admirals and\u2014best of all–the peacock, which I thought was the loveliest thing I had ever seen.<\/p>\n

Nature became my love and best friend in my childhood and, for Christmas when I was seven, a small student microscope allowed me to enter new realms. As an adult, that love has helped me through the darkest of times and life without it is unimaginable.<\/p>\n

When, as a ten year old wandering over the sand dunes at Kenfig, I found my very first bee orchid (Ophrys apifera<\/em>), it was an Epiphany – I could not believe such a flower, perfectly imitating a bee could exist\u2026<\/p>\n

A few years later, in V. S. Summerhayes\u2019 classic book Wild Orchids of Britain, <\/em>I discovered orchids whose flowers looked like insects, monkeys, wriggling lizards and even naked men! But it was not just the forms that intrigued. Every aspect of these plants seemed remarkable. I learned that their seeds can only germinate if invaded by fungi, and that the flowers emit chemical cocktails that mimic the sex pheromones of bees, to deceive the insects into pollinating them.<\/p>\n

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[BELOW]<\/span> My formative days of orchid interest involved a fascination with the intriguing shapes of their flowers. None moreso than the tiny dancing figures of the Monkey orchid (even revealing a face beneath the hood made by 3 sepals and 2 petals whilst a modified third petal provides arms and legs). Likewise, the names of the lady orchid and naked man orchid require little explanation!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Flowers of Monkey orchid (Orchis simia) on left, lady’s orchid (Orchis purpurea) in middle and naked man orchid (Orchis italica) on right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[BELOW]<\/span> The diversity of structure in orchid flowers is endlessly fascinating. With my photography I try to communicate a message that, just beyond our gaze, lie things of true intriguing beauty.
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