There are two more orchids on my list that I might be able to find – burnt orchid (Orchis ustulata) and marsh orchid (Orchis palustris). On my way south, I stopped at every place I had marked as a potential site for the burnt orchid, but came up empty each time. I think I’m too late for it, it’s supposed to bloom in june but I’ve seen in many places that the orchids seem to be ahead of the schedule (marsh helleborine being a good indicator of this). So now I have to give on it, if it were in bloom I would surely have seen it already.

So only one more orchid, and it’s a very rare one. There’s a couple of likely places further south, but I wanted a break from orchid hunting so I played normal tourist and checked out some ”rauk”s at Ljugarn.

And then the hunt was back on… first stop, Mästermyr. No marsh orchid. This was supposed to be a wet place, but there wasn’t a drop of water in sight. The marsh orchid loves water, so it looked hopeless. I was only wondering how the other orchids survived here… for example, plenty of marsh helleborine. You’d expect it wants a lot of water as well. But I did manage to add one more species to my list – dark-red helleborine (Epipactis atrorubens). Granted, with a the narrowest of margins, because the flower hadn’t fully opened yet. I have seen dark-red helleborine buds in many places, but this was the first time that a flower had even started to open, and I don’t want to add a species to my list unless I can say that I’ve seen the flower. So it’s a miss for narrow-leaved helleborine, completely withered but positive id. A near miss for Gymnadenia odoratissima, mostly withered everywhere I saw it but I was lucky to find a couple of blooms on one individual. I know there’s a place about 100 km south from Loos where the dark-red helleborine grows, so I wasn’t disappointed that I didn’t find any blooming individuals yet.

Now I only had one place left. If I didn’t find the marsh orchid at Krakvät/Sävvät, then that’s it. It turned out that this area which the book advertises as ”being covered in water at the end June” is also suffering from the drought. Even the canal that runs through this area was dry. So unless it starts to rain a lot, and soon, I don’t think that the marsh orchid will show themselves anywhere at all. But again, despite the drought, an unbelievable number of marsh helleborine. Hats off!

When I checked in at the hostel, I had a brief chat about the drought. It turned out that this is just about the worst ever – they have received 5.5mm rain since April! That rain that came down in the north, apparently they just got a few drops down south so it didn’t even register.

It’s amazing that any orchids survive the conditions… most of the orchids like wet or damp and/or shaded places, and still I was seeing them in wide open dry places. They are hardier than you’d think.

Since my orchid hunt is now over (tomorrow is sightseeing only, and I’ll get the ferry back on Friday morning), I can summarise the results. I found 13 new species!! (The number includes the slightly questionable lesser butterfly orchid subspecies, and barely-in-bloom dark-red helleborine). This exceeds my expectations by far, I didn’t even dream that I could find that many.

I knew that Gotland is a good place for orchids, but I had no idea it was this good. And this is apparently a bad year, at that. It’s not just the number of species, but it’s also the number of individuals. In some places you can’t take a step without risking to step on an orchid. Unfortunately, such abundance becomes a bit…. boring after a while. From a happy laugh when I found my first new orchid, I just smiled a little when I found the last. The ”wow” had become an ”oh”. Even the marsh helleborine that I think is so beautiful… when you’ve seen it in 5 different places, you don’t even bother to take a closer look to find that beauty. Back home it’s always a pleasure to see an orchid, even if it’s as common as the heath spotted orchid (which by the way doesn’t seem to be the most common orchid here). I wonder how the local people consider the orchids? In Slite, there’s a jogging trail that is surrounded by butterfly orchids, fly orchids, marsh helleborine, and apparently even the occasional narrow-leaved helleborine, plus some other orchids I can’t even remember right now. So you don’t have to travel far to see them… they are right there. Does familiarity breed contempt? Do the locals even see them anymore?

Personally, I think I prefer to keep the joy of discovery. Not even a discovery of new, but a re-discovery of old. When you’re not surrounded by them, you have to work harder to find them. And for me, that’s an essential part of the experience. I’ll have a go at the false musk orchid (Chamorchis alpina) and black vanilla orchid (Gymnadenia nigra) in the mountains later on… and if I find either, I know I’ll be laughing as happy as I was when I saw my first fly orchid on Sunday!