Pyramidal Orchid

The Pyramidal Orchid is so common on the chalk downs of the Isle of Wight it has been declared their County flower. This attractive orchid takes years - working underground as a bulb and relying on the presence of a specific fungus in the soil - to produce leaves and its highly distinctive pyramidal shaped head, which is a densely packed cluster of up to one hundred pale-pink or reddish-purple flowers. At the southern tip of the Indre-et-Loire département (37) of France where I live the seasons are in advance of much of the UK by two to three weeks, so here the Pyramidal Orchid flowers throughout May and into June on the warm, chalky, lime-rich soil banks edging many roads I cycle along.