Hello Wild Orchid Visitor

[FranOnTheEdge]

Hello, I've just joined.
I don't grow orchids or anything, but I did have a strange visitor in my garden one year, and I was wondering if I could post an image of the wanderer, for identification?
Or is that not allowed?

[camille1585]

Welcome!
Sure, go ahead and post a pic of it, maybe someone can tell you what it is. Pics are most welcome here, we always love drooling over them.

This should help you out if you have trouble posting a pic: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ng-photos.html If you have questions, just ask!

[FranOnTheEdge]

Thank you,
Here is the orchid:


this image, however:

is closer to the actual colour (taken without a flash)

I would very much like to know for sure what this orchid (if it is an orchid) is called.
I have already searched the google image search and come up with similar coloured orchids, but never with quite the same markings, so I'm a bit uncertain.

Please can anyone help?

Fran

[glengary54]

Fran - To be totally sure I would have to see a better picture of the flowers, but I don't believe that this is an orchid. I base that belief on the lower part of your photos. In orchids, the pedicle (the small stem that attaches the flower to the inflorescence) is part and parcel of the flower, when the flower fades and falls off the plant it takes the pedicle with it, leaving behind a bare inflorescence. In your photos you can clearly see the remains of a spent flower that was not an orchid. I don't know what it is but it sure is pretty, it would be welcome in my garden anytime.

[Bud]

As I searched the wild flowers of UK; I came up with this: which is similar to the one on your picture:

"The Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) is a commonly occurring species of European orchid. It is widely variable in colour and height, ranging from 15 to 60 cm in height. The flower colour can vary from white to pale purple with purple spots. The lip has three lobes. Some colonies are highly perfumed, attractive to day-flying moths." -according to Wiki

I may be wrong, but I just had time to research on the web...and so far this is what I found...It comes in white, pink, yellow and your picture color. I have seen these flowers also posted in another forum by a member when he visited Rumania last spring

[ronaldhanko]

This isn't an orchid - it appears to be a Penstemon.

[camille1585]

Not at all an orchid. I have seen Dactylorhiza fuchsii before, and this is nowhere near close to being it. It looks a lot like a member of the genus Linaria. Probably Linaria purpurea (Purple Toadflax) but I'm not all that familiar with these plants.

[Bud]

Camille is right, I saw those exact pictures when I googled Purple Toadflax. Its as if it was taken from that site itself

[FranOnTheEdge]

Well thanks to you all,
Glen, yes... not sure about everything you said, but you're probably right. You know a great deal more about it than I do.

Bud, yes I found those images and didn't think mine looked like that at all, mine had veining, not spots.

Ron Hanko,

I didn't think it was a Penstemon.

Camille1585, yes, you're right! Mine looked exactly like that, those images of purple toadflax had the same purple veining exactly. I did think it was a bit odd for an orchid to arrive out of the blue like that, but Linaria, much more likely.

Bud, yes, my photos did look extremely similar to the other Linaria ones, didn't they?

Thank you all for solving this for me, and I'm so sorry I came here under false pretenses, I hope next time I really do see an orchid.

[camille1585]

Nah, no problem! Think of it this way: now you know what an orchid doesn't look like!