[Alice]

Is this Anacamptis pyramidalis?

[Alisdair]

Yes it is, Alice - flowering now?

[Alice]

No, Alisdair. The photo was taken at the end of April.

[Alisdair]

That's reassuring! It would have been depressing to know that it was flowering so happily somewhere, when it's so very cold, muddy and dreary here in Sussex, UK! Not quite so beastly this morning, for the first time for weeks I felt slight sun-warmth as I was out helping a tracked digger extricate our ancient and normally utterly sure-footed Land Rover from the deep mud that - for the first time in its life - it was completely bogged down in.

[Marilyn]

Oh, Alisdair, that sounds truly horrid! My sympathies. And I am sorry to do this, in the face of those bleak tales from the UK, but I can't resist: I saw these two lovely pyramids on Sunday evening (made long-suffering hubby stop the car so I could photograph them). Clearly you will just have to find more excuses to spend time in Portugal

[Alisdair]

Marilyn, at least that made me laugh! Thanks!

[Alice]

They could well be flowering already on Paros, Alisdair. It's just that we are not there to see them but are, like you, enjoying the arctic UK temperatures.
Your Anacamptis is truly pyramidal, Marilyn.
By the way, is the flowering period of terrestrial orchids long? I am thinking of the tropical epiphytic orchids, whose flowers last forever.

[Alisdair]

It can be quite long - the further north and cooler they are, the longer the flowers last. Here in our Sussex UK garden, we have a colony of Dactylorrhiza fuchsii which are in flower for about six weeks in summer. But in a hot Greek spring, an individual Ophrys plant's flowers may go over in just a few days.