Spurges

Now roadsides and fields are flecked with yellow. The big greenish yellow spots are often made by Spurges. They are easily recognized by their colour, white milk and the form of their inflorescences. Here are three of the about twenty-five species that grow in Périgord. Their flowers are special. They grow in umbels andd consist of a female capsule and a number of male stamen on a stem, accompanied by several round or cornered glands, and this surrounded by two big coloured bracts. And from this contraption sometimes emerges another 'flower' of the same construction.



Several weeks ago the Wood Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) started flowering. It likes to grow under deciduous trees. In the picture above you can see the red capsules already beginning to ripen.














The Cypress Spurge (Euphorbia cyparissias) above grows where it is dry and stony, and also elsewhere.

And this is the Yellow-headed Spurge (Euphorbia flavicoma) who has of course yellow flower-heads. Like most other spurges.

Spider orchids

This is why they are called Spider Orchids:

 

The group is considered to consist of several species. They differ in form of the flower, colour, height, flowering season and a number of other points. But there are many intermediate plants. Are they different species or just different variations of the same?

Sometimes their names add to the confusion. This one is the Early spider orchid (Orchis aranifera), but it is not yet in flower now.





To have a species, there must be at least a 'barrier' between it and other species. In space: the plants don't grow in the same neighbourhood. Or in time: they flower in different seasons. Or they don't have the same pollinator. Or they are not fertile between them. Or ... The only fact that two populations, or two plants in a population, look different, is not enough.

Are they several species with hybrids between them, or variations of the same species? We don't really know.

Here are two representatives flowering now



This one, let's call it Western Spider Orchid (Ophrys occidentalis) grows often in groups, sometimes on roadsides nearly on the tarmac.
















The Small Spider Orchid (Ophrys araneola) has tiny yellow-banded flowers and is more solitary.