Orchids in Coll

Whether you are an enthusiastic amateur flower lover or a high-powered botanist, it is a delight to be in Coll during the summer. We fall into the first category and have kept flower lists here for many years, but we’ve also had much help form those in the second. Sometimes our identifications have been queried, but we’ve also known the excitement of having some of our finds confirmed as new to the official flower records for Coll. Flowers naturally grow most profusely in areas not grazed by sheep. Cornaig marsh and on the left a splendid ungrazed, uncultivated patch has a wide variety of flowers including orchids. Bousd is another good spot, particularly between the road and the lily loch; the bents beyond Hogh Bay are also good and orchids thick on the ground on the Machair Moor.

The commonest orchid is the Heath Spotted which flowers from May onwards and can be found just about everywhere. It varies very much in colour from almost white through many shades of pink and mauve; despite its name the spotting on the leaves is seldom heavy and may be very faint or absent. Superficially similar is the Hebridean form of the Common Spotted Orchid which is also variable in colour but can be distinguished by the shape of the lower lip of the flower. This is strongly three-lobed, the middle lobe being the longest, whereas the Heath Spotted lip is frilled. Most of the orchids hybridise among themselves very freely which can made identification difficult.

The Marsh orchids come at the end of May and early June, they are extremely variable as they hybridise so readily among themselves and with the spotted. However, the Early Marsh is easily identified by the leaves and flowers. The leaves are unspotted with hooded tips and the reddish purple upper leaves grade into long bracts which project well beyond the flowers. At first sight the flower’s lower lip looks very narrow but a closer inspection will show that this is because the two sides are folded right back. There are two colour forms in Coll, one a rather unattractive flesh pink the other more purple. The Northern Marsh flowers a good deal later; its top flower spike is very flat, as if cut off with scissors, and the lower flower lip diamond-shaped.

The Common Twayblade is an interesting orchid which it is easy to miss. It seems to flower here about the middle of June and flourishes in the Cornaig area mentioned earlier. As the flowers are green, and rather insignificant, you really have to search for it but once you have found one you suddenly see that they are all around you. The leaves are very distinctive, dark green, oval, large and flat; there are usually two opposite leaves, hence the name twayblade.

As June goes on more and more orchids come out. You’ll never forget the Scented Orchid once you’ve smelled its lovely carnation-like perfume. The flowers are bright pink and rather loosely placed up the stem. There is a very long slender, down-curving spur to the flower and the nectar is very attractive to moths, butterflies and bees. About the time you may also find the widely-distributed Lesser Butterfly Orchid. It is beautiful, delicate, with creamy white flowers that are strongly scented, especially at night. The lower lip of the flower is almost horizontally across the flower spike. The Pyramidal Orchid that flourishes in the wet and bents is, as its name implies, pyramid-shaped – a perky little orchid with a densely-packed head of bright pink flowers.

Coll is one of the few places in Great Britain where you may be lucky enough to find the Irish Lady’s Tresses which rejoices in the botanical name of Spiranthes romanzoffiana. It is found nowhere else in Europe and seems to belong more properly to the flora of Canada and N. America. The flowers of Spiranthes appear in later August and are creamy white, arranged up the stem in three well-defined spiral rows and with a very distinct vanilla scent. David Long, in his excellent, ‘Orchids of Britain’ writes, ‘On Coll one of the islanders described the scent as being so strong that, in a good flowering year, the plants could be detected at some distance on a warm still day, even though they were out of sight beyond a wall.’ They are less profuse now, but have been found between Arinagour and Arnabost, around the Mill Loch and probably elsewhere too – it’s a matter of happening to look in the right place at the right time. If you are lucky, study it closely, smell it, photograph or sketch it, but PLEASE don’t pick it! We would be very interested to hear of any sitings with a grid reference if possible.

B.K.C.