Many botanists, amateur and professional alike, can vividly remember the occasion on which they saw their very first Bee Orchid. The excitement is renewed, in the June of each successive year, when these intriguing flowers appear on chalk and limestone quarries. The rather fleshy ‘lip’ with its rounded edges and patterning produces an uncanny likeness to a small bee – with spreading sepals and small petals the deception can become almost complete.
