Texel Island orchid paradise

[camille1585]

Since it was a 3 day weekend, I spent 2 days up at Texel Island, which is part of the West Friesan Islands in the very north of the netherlands. The island has the highest orchid density in the entire country, and I wasn't disappointed! We found a huge field absolutely full of orchids, Dactylorhiza maculata and another that I must finish identifying. Based on the size of the field and the number of orchids we saw per m², I made an educated guess that there were probably over 70 000 orchids there!











There are other species of orchids growing elsewhere on the island also in large groups, but the island is large and we were traveling on bicycle so it's impossible to see everything. We did 80km in 2 days, which is not bad at all considering we spent quite some time at the beach and walking. As an aside, here's what the wild side of the island is like.