Lesser Butterfly Orchid

With the aid of a car lift to 100 yards away I managed to limp onto the lower slopes of Arnside Knott to see the new find of 20 plus Lesser Butterfly Orchids.

Plantanthera bifolia is not to be confused with the Greater Butterfly Orchid although they are similar in appearance. The spurs behind the flower are longer on the latter.

But the main way to tell them apart is to look at the pollinea. These are the white sacks which hold the pollen and are at the entrance to the flower tube where the pollinator puts in its tongue for nectar.

On the Lesser B.O. These sacks are close together and parallel. ( See the extra for a close up of these). The result is that the pollinator (often a moth) gets pollen sticking to the side of its tongue.
On the Greater B.O these sacks are further apart and at an angle to each other. Thus the pollen sticks to the side of the moth's head.

So when the moth moves from one to the other the pollen is brushed off at the appropriate place.

This is the main reason why hybrids between the two are quite rare.

Isn't nature clever?