Dutchman's Pipe

2012 is a good year for the Dutchman's Pipe (Monotropa hypopitys). This smal ivory-coloured plant is not common at all in Perigord, but this summer it can be found in relative abundance. Maybe it enjoys the rains of this year after a very dry 2011.



The Dutchman's Pipe is a parasite on Pine trees. It has no chlorophyll but instead uses the tree to provide it with nutrients. In a pine wood, often only one or two trees are infested by Dutchman's Pipe, and as often as not those do not appear to suffer from their parasites. Maybe there is some reciprocity and the parasites do have also small favours on offer.

A Sandwort

A track in an arid calcareous meadow, maybe last winter fourwheeldrives of hunters compacted the soil. A place where the puddles of winter rain stay a little longer.



Those are the rather specific requirements for this tiny white flower, but when all conditions are met, the 'Controversial Sandwort' (Arenaria controversa, no English name) flowers abundantly.

Pyramidal Orchid

Color...



Amidst yellow, red-striped Horseshoe Vetch, a Pyramidal Orchid (Orchis pyramidalis) in full bloom. In Mai the first deep pink flower heads can be seen, and they are round. In the following weeks they grow longer and longer, and in June elongated spikes decorate meadows and roadsides.
Only butterflies can reach the nectar at the bottom of the long spurs, but often other insects visit the flower for a meal of pollen.