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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
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Limodorum abortivum, the Violet Limodore |
Orchis syriaca, the Syrian
Orchid |
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