September 24, 2010

Autumn flowers


Here are two tiny plants flowering now.

The Autumn squill (Scilla autumnalis) likes its surroundings dry and with only sparse vegetation. It is not common in the Dordogne, so you are not likely to stumble upon it. Moreover, it is very small, a big specimen may measure 10 cm. And only during two weeks it is in flower, and after this it is nearly invisible. Like other Squills that flower in spring it is a bulb, the greater part of the year subterranean. If you really really look for them you'll be able to find, after flowering, some grey-green, millimetre-wide leaves.


This year it was late, may be because of this summer's dry weather.
















Normally you find end of august, beginning of september, hundreds of small Spiral orchids (Spiranthes spiralis). At least if you look in poor, dry, calcareous meadows with sparse vegetation, an environment that is not very common. But this year I found only two flowering stalks, also much later than usual.


This is a portrait of the first one.



















A hundred meter further on was the second one. From this one here some flowers in detail. You can see it is a real miniature orchid. The blue in the background comes from a stone.