Saturday, August 18, 2007

Introduction

Since March 2005, when I was fortunate enough to receive from Koeltz Book Company my copy of the amazing book from D. Tyteca The orchid flora of Portugal (see Book References), I have been travelling through Portugal searching for terrestrial orchids.

As the search is restricted in most places from beginning of March to the end of April and time is never enough for everything, in these 3 years I have searched 50 sites (some more than once), and found 35 orchid species. This number is around 40% of the total expected to be found in Portugal (around 70 species).

In May and even June there are some sites where orchids can still be found, normally located in altitude and / or in the half North of Portugal. I found references to one terrestrial orchid – Spiranthes spiralis – that flourishes end of September – October, and this is going to be one of my autumn projects for 2007.

In my orchid hunting activity I try to combine research, travelling (which I enjoy a lot), walking and hiking, photography, and, why not, some tourist sightseeing and good meals.
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Orchis mascula, Serra de Montejunto, April 2005

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