Careering down Etna 🌋 after a gruelling 4000ft climb on the G-line Brompton, I saw a flash of pink, slammed the brakes & returned to an amazing clump of Orchis brancifortii 😃 Going up the pain was relieved by Dactylorhiza romana and the good old A.morio. A splendid non-orchiding day. 22/4/2026 💜💜💜🇮🇹

Lovely .... It is absolutely peak season here, a smidge later than usual apparently 😃

Ophrys lunulata & one of many confusing subsp. of Ophrys fuciflora 😃 Sicily, 21/4/2026 💜🇮🇹

Orchids at Monte Lauro, Sicily 20/2026 😃💜🇮🇹

Orchids and hybrids in Sicily 21/4/2026 💜🇮🇹

Monte Lauro, Sicily ... what a place! Soooo many orchids. Picks from 8hrs 20min in the field 🤣. Ophrys laurensis, Ophrys tenthredinifera, Anacamptis papilionacea and a Bertolonii hybrid headache. 💜🇮🇹 20/4/2026

O.pallida
0.fusca
O.bombyliflora
O.lutea
O.bertolonii
O.lucifera
O.apifera
O.tenthredinifera
0.sphegodes

Serapias x2 spp?
Orchis italica
Orchis provincialis
Anacamptis longicornu
Neotinea lactea

So very many beautiful orchids at Ficuzza, Sicily today, bit overwhelming for day one! Super happy to see Ophrys pallida and Ophrys tenthredinifera amongst the swathes of Orchis italica, Orchis provincalis, Neotinea lactae, N.maculata etc. Ophrys lucifera too! 💜🇮🇹 18/4/2026

UFO 🤣

Early-purple and Green-winged orchids starting to flower at a deserted Berry Head, Devon, today 12/4/2026 @ukorchids.bsky.social

glad you got to see it Roger ... more to come!

Early Purple orchid (Orchis mascula) in white - a good couple of weeks earlier than usual and before the standard ones at this site. Devon 9/4/2026 @ukorchids.bsky.social

Sea campion on The Mighty Chesil 🌞

Early Purple orchids starting to flower at Codgen, Dorset today 6/4/2026 ... Southern Marsh orchids poking through 😃

Amongst the thousands of lovely Early Spider orchids (Ophrys sphegodes) today, 6/4/2026, on the Purbecks, Dorset, a couple with coloured and furry petals/sepals 😃 @orchidvinny.bsky.social @ukorchids.bsky.social

Which way did you go? I was East towards the mile markers. Ran out of time to go West! Amazing....

So many Early Spider orchids (Ophrys sphegodes) on the Purbecks today. 1 with unusual colouring on sepals, one with coloured petals. 5/4/2026 @orchidvinny.bsky.social @ukorchids.bsky.social

Early purple orchids (Orchis mascula) are flowering at last near Exeter 😃 2/4/2026 @ukorchids.bsky.social @orchidvinny.bsky.social

Lovely variation in Ophrys sphegodes (all subsp. atrata apparently) in a 30m stretch of roadside verge near Plomin, Istria, Croatia. 28/3/2026. 💜🇭🇷

No touching going on here.

Thanks! Interesting how many european spots are 'behind' this year ... but not UK, hope it warms up for you!

What elevation Tristan?? (Im there in 3 weeks 😃)

Ophrys bombyliflora rosettes at Kamenjak, Istria, 🇭🇷 03/2026 ... €0.20 and €1 coins for scale. How many ??

Some (lovely) 'things with wings' in Croatia last week... Griffon Vulture, Southern festoon, Scarce swallowtail, a bee, Clouded yellow, Red admiral. Note to self ... must look up more 🤣 ....🤍🇭🇷

Noce aren't they 😃There's a local endemic here too S.istriaca (and hybrids of the two) but a bit later i think..

Bit nippy on the Istrian peninsula today but managed to find some early flowering orchids ... Serapias lingua (a tick for me 😃), Ophrys bombyliflora and Anacamptis morio. Amazing place 💜🇭🇷

Amazing... nothing at all 10days ago on 15th March Duncan! only a couple of cowslips emerging!

Stumbled across many hundreds of Ophrys bombyliflora along with some beautiful O.flavicans, O.incubacea and a possible hybrid. Countless Himantoglossum robertianum... <30m asl in coastal scrub / olive groves near Vodice, Croatia. 25/3/2026. 💜🇭🇷

More Ophrys flavicans around Sibenik, Croatia plus a bonus white Himantoglossum robertianum 😃🤍💜🇭🇷 24/3/2026

A hypochromatic roadside Himantoglossum robertianum 🤪🤍🇭🇷

Himantoglossum robertianum, Ciovo, Croatia 23/3/2026