Where the Wildflowers Are
2012-05-19
Walking through a narrow, predominantly damp and shady deciduous woodland yesterday afternoon I was suddenly greeted by sunshine on my right cheek and a group of Early Purple Orchids by my left foot. The two experiences were almost certainly related. The break in the trees, at a spot where the path had swerved towards the edge of the woodland, had allowed sunlight into the otherwise dark dank green. There had been no orchids for a hundred metres and there were no orchids for the hundred metres beyond that spot. The only environmental variable that I could tell had…
