The day dawned rainy. And windy. Definitely not a flower photographer’s dream weather, but I wasn’t discouraged. It just takes a bit more work, that’s all. I drove to Kallgatburg in search of the narrow-leaved marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza traunsteineri) and I was happy to find them – except now that I looked at one and confirmed the id, I realised that many of those early marsh orchids I was cursing at yesterday were also narrow-leaved marsh-orchid. But now that I was sure of what I was looking at, it was surprisingly easy to tell them apart. That’s learning the hard way, but these are the lessons that I’m sure to remember. Much more efficient than someone just pointing out the flowers to you.

Weather-wise, I had a lucky break at Kallgatburg. When I was walking to the car, it started raining and it kept raining on my next stop, the Alvena lindaränge meadows. It was so bad that I had I not found a new orchid, I wouldn’t have risked getting the camera wet, but as it happens, I did find a new orchid – military orchid (Orchis militaris). And a bonus orchid in a form of a half withered Gymnadenia odoratissima, and now I knew the species for sure. The ones that got me wondering yesterday were not Gymnadenia odoratissima, they were hybrids at best.

The Stormjacket came up the champ, it kept my camera dry and I got my pictures.

Since I had now ticked off two new species, my list was getting short. All that is left are the rarest ones, so now I was just checking my notes to see where those elusive orchids grow. I read that narrow-leaved helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia) and fen orchid (Liparis loeselii) would grow in Ar, so that was my next stop. I was stunned when I got there – pyramidal orchids growing by the roadside, in large numbers! This is the first time I saw them since that one individual I found two days ago. And then I was also seeing early marsh orchids and ssp. ochroleuca, plus lesser butterfly orchids and marsh helleborine… all in greater numbers that I had seen anywhere so far. As for the flowers I was looking for, I found a withered narrow-leaved helleborine, so now I can stop looking for it – I’m hopelessly too late for it. The fen orchid was nowhere to be seen.

On my way back south, I stopped at Vitärtskällan. It wasn’t on my list, but the entrance to the reserve was right by the road so it was too easy to miss. Nothing new there, just some cows.

The next location to find my elusive orchids was at Slite. Again, it was a miss but there was plenty of other orchids. Can’t believe these numbers… back home there’s one bog where you can find 5 different species of orchids. That’s the most I know of anywhere in that region. Here, 5 species seems like a poor orchid place. At first on my excursions, I kept a count of the number of orchids I saw. Now I don’t even bother… The last time I counted was 8, and I’ve read that there are some places that host no less than 15 species. They are obviously not all blooming at the same time, but still! And the most common orchid? Twayblade, no doubt. Can’t remember a place I’ve visited where it didn’t grow.

Time for one more excursion before I called it a day. Having given up on the narrow-leaved helleborine, I was now hunting for the burnt orchid (Orchis ustulata) which is actually quite high on my wish list. But I missed it again, I did however find mosquitoes. Got my first mozzy bites on this island!