Cyprus Orchids

I've just stumbled across this great website which catalogues Cyprus Orchids.

The author has put together a video and a beautifully illustrated book on Ochids.

Its called the Orchids of Cyprus and where to find them. 

I'm off to buy the book as soon as possible!

Before I go I must mention the Cyprus Wild Flowers page which has some great photos of the Cyprus Cyclamen and many other flowers including some great shots of Anemones.

Pamela Scraton has been kind enough to let us have some photos of her orchids and has very kindly written a piece for our site.

Among the beautiful flowers which carpet the ground in Cyprus in the spring are one very special group - the orchids. If you go looking for the exotic showy blooms of that name which we can see in florists shops, you will not find them, but all the same our native orchids have their own charm.

In Cyprus there are around fifty examples, and if you ask 'Where are they to be seen?' I can only answer 'Everywhere' because they are found on low ground and in the mountains, in open countryside, abandoned cultivation, in villages and gardens, and even by the sea! The CTO nature-trails make a good starting-point for looking for them. Try the lower ground in March to April, and higher up in May and June.

What makes them so special that visitors will come from all over Europe and beyond to see them? In Cyprus we have five orchids which grow nowhere else, and others which are quite rare. The Orchis and Dactylorhiza genera have mostly delicate coloured flowers, while Ophrys flowers cleverly mimic insects to tempt them to visit and pollinate them! 

As with everything around us, there is always more to find about them, and a book about them is a good starting point. Many books are available on European orchids, but Orchids of Cyprus and where to find them was written especially to cover all the orchids found in Cyprus, and has a superb video to illustrate them. And if what you find is not in the book, maybe you will prove to have discovered a new variety; it isn't impossible!

Pamela Scraton       Cyprus Orchids

Limodorum abortivum, the Violet Limodore

Orchis syriaca, the Syrian Orchid

Orchis papilionacea, the Pink Butterfly Orchid

Orchis troodi, the Troodos Orchid

Neotinia maculata, the Dense-flowered Orchid

Cephalanthera rubra, the Red Helleborine

Dactylorhiza romana, The Roman Orchid

Orchis quadripunctata, the Four-spotted Orchid

Orchis punctulata, the Punctate Orchid