The flora of Périgord in South-West France is abundant and diverse. In this blog you can find, in pictures, brief encounters with several hundreds of wild flowers and plants as they grow here in French Perigord. Following the seasons other species are added. An index of scientific and English names you find below on the right.

Corine Oosterlee is a botanist and photographer and she offers guided Botanical Walks and other activities around plants and vegetation in nature in Perigord. Do you want to know more? On www.baladebotanique.fr you can find more information. For Corine's photography see www.corineoosterlee.com. Both websites also in English.

Enjoy!




February 15, 2010

Bird's Nest Orchid


Seven degrees below zero this morning; and the last snow does not melt.
What is this dead, brown, stalk between the fallen leaves and a patch of snow?
 

It is the remnant of a Bird's Nest Orchid (Neottia nidus-avis), a stalk with empty seed pods.

















In May it looked like this. Also brown, but a bit more pale. It has no green at all, and that's why it can live under the shadowy canopy. It gets its nutrients from the roots of other plants, not from photosynthesis.












The Ivy (Hedera helix) in the picture lives also under the canopy, but it is still green when after the falling of the leaves the winter sun reaches the forest floor.