I was strolling along by the river in a local park* when I chanced upon a rather spectacular orchid of a kind I'd never seen before - similar to the common Spotted Orchid but more intensely coloured and with differently shaped and marked flowers. Reaching for my trusty Fitter, Fitter and Blamey, I was delighted to discover that it was a Southern Marsh Orchid...
Here's how it did happen:
Having heard that there was a colony of Southern Marsh Orchids in a local park*, I headed for what I thought must be the location, an area of damp ground near the river. I searched for some while with no luck, and was thinking of giving up when I noticed that a few small, apparently random patches of land were cordoned off with red-and-white tape attached to traffic cones. Surely they hadn't decided to draw attention to the orchids by fencing them off, as if to - er - draw attention to them? Reader, they had! And that was how I found my Southern Marsh Orchids, each clump fenced off like a crime scene. I wish it had happened the other way, but at least it gave me a great forehead-slapping moment - D'Oh!
* Note for Malty: Beddington Park.
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