After a rather warm month of January, rosettes of wild orchids develop well. Roots or tubercules of Orchids from here hibernate in the soil. Many species show their first leaves long before the flowering stalks appear, at the end of winter. Often many kleaves have already disappeared when the plant flowers.
Under an oak tree on the roadside this rosette is really on show. It is rather big and belongs to a Fly Orchid (Orchis insectifera), an orchid that is not rare at all on limestone soil in Perigord.
In May, when it flowers, it is more difficult to find a Fly Orchid amidst other green plants, its little black flowers are not that conspicuous. And yes, in fact they look really like a fly, antennae and wings included.
In this limestone meadow many orchids flower later in the year. Here the rosettes from the two species that are very abundant here. From the three rosettes with greyish and roundish leaves will grow the flower stalks of the Western Spider Orchid (Ophrys occidentalis). The rosette with long, curved green leaves is a Green-winged Orchid that begins to flower two weeks later.
The Western Spider Orchidis about ten to twenty centimeters high. This one just begins flowering and it is still very small.
A budding Green-winged Orchid.