Confused European Terrestrials

[Afid]

I recently unpotted my European terrestrial orchids (Orchis anthropophora, Anacamptis coriophora, and Neotinea lactea) as they had gone dormant about a month ago (very early??). The tubers look very good, but one of them (Anacamptis coriophora) appears to be sprouting already. Any thoughts on what I should do? Thanks in advance!

[Roberta]

Do you usually pull the tubers out of the pot for their dormant period?

If you do, this one I'd put back into medium, perhaps water very lightly (maybe once a week just a bit) for another month or so...lf it wants to sprout it will, but it won't be enough water to rot it if that isn't what it is "thinking" of doing. This one has a huge range, and some of the places that it comes from get rain this time of year. Curious... did it bloom? Looking at some of the more northern countries that it can come from, I could see it not even coming up until around now.

One of the things that I have learned about terrestrials in general... "dormant" does not necessarily mean "totally dry". The true Mediterranean ones (like from North Africa, Greece, Turkey, etc) do experience a truly dry summer. But as you go into central and more northern Europe, spring comes later, and rain in summer is not uncommon. So the native orchids have clearly evolved to deal with that. Whether they sprout or not, those more northern ones don't die if they get wet. (I don't grow those, since I suspect they also need winter cold which I can't provide... I stick to the more southern "real Mediterranean" ones that fit right in with my climate)

[Afid]

This is my first attempt with them, so I did this time, but may not in the future.
It did not bloom, but its a pretty small plant still so I'm not too surprised (the tuber is just a bit bigger than a pea). I should also clarify that this is the so-called "A. fragrans" (the lumpers did it again), which I have heard prefers drier conditions than the regular coriophora.

I got it last fall (around September sometime) at a similar stage of sprouting. It was fully leafed out by november or so, and remained that way until around february or early march when the leaves began to fade.

[Roberta]

I'd just pot it up and ignore it, maybe just a bit of water. See what, if anything, it does.

According to Orchidwiz, the "lumped" species occurs from North Africa to the Baltic states... so that's a huge range of climates.(That would be like in the US having something that grows from southern California to New England) All the same species? Maybe... but there have to be variations in local populations - which aren't captured in the taxonomy. This one is "pot it up, wait and watch" I think. Good luck!

I suppose that one could have one parent be from the Algerian population and the other being from the Lithuanian population of the same species and bloom twice... really far fetched but that is a logical conclusion from that sort of lumping. Or it has a really short dormancy (possible...)

[Afid]

Will do, thanks for the advice!