Ireland's Wild Orchids: a Field Guide by Brendan Sayers, Susan Sex

Abstract

BOOK REVIEW Cite as follows: Viney, M. 2009 Book review: Ireland's wild orchids: a field guide.Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal IrishAcademy 110B, 79. DOI: 10.3318/BIOE. 2010.110.1.79. Ireland's Wild Orchids: a Field Guide Brendan Sayers and Susan Sex (Published by the authors, 2009; 119 pp; 35; ringbound field guide) 'Do not pick up the plant ... go down to it.' The cardinal rule for botanising finds practical pleasure in a book perfectly designed for field work on one's knees among the variable hybrids and sub-species of the island's orchids. Ring bound, streamlined for the anorak pocket and durably armed against dog-eared decline, itopens flat, shower-proof pages and tucks a millimetre ruler-cum-magnifier in the pocket at the back: a notable alliance of science, art and craft, and a timely tool in the current run of orchidaceous summers. The partnership ofBrendan Sayers and Susan Sex resulted in 2004 in the outstandingly beau tifulvolume, Ireland'sWild Orchids, intended for the connoisseur of botanical illustration. Their new field guide, at a fraction of the size and price, brings Sayers' enthusiasm and a new range of Sex's exquisite orchid portraits to a wider audience. They are complemented by photo graphs and distributionmaps, and textnoteswith ready appeal to amateur 'orchideers'. Illustrations simplifymorphology and offer a ready key to spur types. In confident identification among themarsh and spotted orchids, however, the crosses and re-crosses of a hybrid swarm of blossom can, as Sayers writes, 'present an identity crisis, confounding both amateur and expert alike.' Examples of Dactylorhiza hybrids and their parents from Dublin's North Bull Island and Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare, demonstrate the often bewildering miscegenations now under molecular study. Among the Gymnadenia, too, the recent molecular distinction of three species of fragrant orchid is complicated by hybridisation, and Susan Sex illustrates examples of lip variations found in a single Gymnadenia population. Orchids can also defy expectations of habitat. In one field in Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo, Sayers reports, both acidic and alkaline species grow side by side and breed profusely. Frog, pyramidal, fragrant orchids and marsh helle borines can all be foundwithin itsboundaries. Perhaps against expectations, the rare and endangered species of Ireland are not themost temptingly pickable?the tall and exotically prettymarsh helleborine still has huge colonies on North Bull Island, on the capital's doorstep, 'with thousands of flowering stems present every year.' The smallwhite orchid (Pseudorchid albida), on the other hand, with tiny flowers, depends on 'a grazing regime between over-grazing and under-grazing' to ensure its survival in longish meadow grass. Another rare and protected species, the bog orchid (Hammaryba paludosa), is the smallest of our natives, flowering erratically at itsfifteen recorded sites, and, being translucently green throughout, extremely hard to see among the sphagnum moss of 'treacherous and inhospit able strongholds of mountainy blanket bog'. In the earlier Ireland'sWild Orchids, Sayers told of searching for hours with Susan Sex to find the plant, which needs running water and plenty of pollinating midges. Since then, it has even been given a new/old name (from a temporary displacement to the genus Malaxis)?all of a piece with the fluid, shape-shiftingmysteries of Ireland's orchid realm. Michael Viney, Thallabawn, CarrowniskeyPO, Westport, Co Mayo. DOI: 10.3318/BIOE.2010.110.1.79 Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. HOB, No. 1, 79 (2010). ? Royal Irish Academy 79 ...