Monkey / Lady Orchid Hybrid

The jury is still out on these plants that flowered for the first time during 2006 in Oxfordshire. The lip shape is very like Monkey orchid but the legs are thicker.  The hood is speckled like Lady orchid but with a deep purple colour like the lip colour of a Monkey orchid. Monkey and Military orchids generally have pale hoods.

These orchids flowered 5 days after the Lady orchids and 1 week before most of the Monkey orchids on the site. The hybrids are much larger and more vigorous than the normal Monkey orchid and closer in form to the Lady orchid. The flowers opened from the bottom up as in Lady orchid - not top down like the Monkey orchid. Lastly, the foliage is bushy like the Lady orchid, but is a grey-green, like the Monkey orchid.

Leading authorities from the Natural History Museum and Kew Gardens have been involved, and a range of DNA and pollen viability tests are being carried out, so hopefully it will not be too long before we get the verdict.

monkey-lady-hybrid-03		monkey-lady-hybrid-01

monkey-lady-hybrid-02

monkey-lady-hybrid-05		monkey-lady-hybrid-04

These very rare hybrids first appeared as vegatative plants some years back at Hartslock reserve, near Goring, and flowered for the first time in 2006, when the first three pictures were taken, and flowered again in 2007.

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