Most of us are familiar with the orchids sold in flower shops as a special gift for someone dear to us. In the past, sprays of orchids were also worn on dinner dresses and ball gowns. Such orchids are large conspicuous, fleshy, beautiful blooms, but our native wild orchids tend to be much smaller and fairly inconspicuous.

While not very common, wild orchids excite botanists and wild flower enthusiasts, so there was some degree of celebration this Summer when a large burst of a native orchid, Pyrimidal, made its appearance in two places in Irishtown Nature Park and persisted in bloom for over three weeks.

About a hundred of these distinctive blooms made their appearance in two places. While they are not fragrant, they are unusual and striking, with a range of colours like a modern paint catalogue, having pink blooms encompassing a spectrum from deep magenta through puce to shocking pink to pale salmon.

Looking superficially similar to the pink hyacinths on sale for Christmas, Pyrimidal Orchid is topped by a cone of florets condensed on a stem. It grows happily on dry, sandy banks and is not found in north Dublin. It may be found inland, but is not common.

Irishtown Nature Park, just twenty years old, is beginning to turn up some interesting plants, medicinal St. John’s Wort and Ladies’ Bedstraw are two of the plants noted by photographer John Cheevers on the day we visited the park to take photographs of the orchids.

Unfortunately, a single rare Bee Orchid which had popped up in June for the first time in Irishtown Nature Park, was well and truly spent, probably due to the torrential rain we have been having. This orchid is listed as rare in the Republic of Ireland but is on the rare and endangered list in Northern Ireland. So hill walkers keep your eyes open, you never know what you may find.

Due to the fact that the last glaciation of Ireland was merely thirteen thousand years ago, and that the ice sheet was later moving off the land, Ireland has fewer species of native plants and animals than does the neighbouring UK. The edible dormouse, moles, weasels, and snakes do not occur here, and plants are fewer in species numbers.

Part of our national heritage, plants are respected for their own sake as food, for beauty and also for the present and possible future uses which might be essential active components for the medical and pharmaceutical industry.