GeoGraph - photograph every grid square

A303 lay-by with a difference

Travel along the A303 as it passes through the chalk country of East Somerset/North Dorset/South Wiltshire/North Hampshire in late June/early July, and in a number of places you may see the roadside banks dotted with the strong pink of Pyramidal Orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis). Primarily a plant of chalk and other calcium rich soils (coastal dunes are another favoured location), it is often an early coloniser of bare soil, with large populations building up.

This particular bank is conveniently sited at a lay-by, enabling close inspection of the "colony", which here runs into the hundreds.

Interestingly, on the opposite side of the carriageway at this point, there is a large patch of Common Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii), obvious when passing from the paler shade of pink, which are absent from this site - the Pyramidal Orchids favour the drier, sun baked, south facing bank shown here, whereas the Common Spotted Orchids prefer the slightly cooler and shadier conditions found on the other side of the road.