< Spotted Orchid

George (Greg) Snow, retired from London City life, where he worked for one of the major insurance companies, several years ago now. He and his wife Bonnie bought a second home in the Minervois region of Southern France. Since living there Greg's passion has been the study of the Orchids, Helleborines and Serapias which abound in his garden and the surrounding heathland. We present here Greg's own words and pictures, he does not pretend to be an authorative expert on the subject, just an enthusiatic amateur, so if you find any errors in the classification of the species shown here, we hope you will feel free to write to us. Copies of all correspondance received will be passed on to Greg.

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White Helleborine >

Orchids are found worldwide, divided into three main groups, with these being further divided into genus, genera, species and sub-species, plus there are the hybrids! Only two of these groups are found in Europe, and for the sake of simplicity it is probably best to say that there are something like ninety "varieties" of orchid in Europe, and over eighty of these are to be found in the Languedoc region of Southern France particularly in the Minervois and Corbi&#egrave;res.

The design, colouring and even the scent of the orchid generally identify the insect they are trying to attract for the purposes of pollination and fertilization and close examination very clearly demonstrates this e.g.The Bee Orchid unmistakedly is intended to attract bees. The names very usually illustrating this.

Many of the orchids found in the area are rare, sometimes single specimins only. All are subject to preservation orders with very large fines capable of being imposed on transgressors.