In our divine nature, beauty and fairy tale are always nearby. Some plants I want to touch carefully and gently, because they are so fragile. So, listed in the Red Book is the Swamp napkin. And not in vain. This is a plant that grows in a swamp, and therefore the name is appropriate. Every year the wild appearance of this plant is declining more and more, but they have learned to cultivate it and use it to decorate rocky slides.
In another way, it is also called the northern orchid, because it is a small copy of the beauty of the house, only lives in the wild. I would like to get acquainted with this herbaceous plant of the Orchid family - Swamp Dremlik.
The legend of the northern orchid
There is one very beautiful legend about the swamp drowsiness. It speaks of one handsome and stately hunter. All the girls fell in love with him, but he was impregnable. Once in the forest he met one amazing beauty in a dress of thin blades and petals. On her head was a wreath of pine branches. They fell in love with the hunter in each other.
Often a young man began to go into the forest, returned without prey. This oddity has become noticeable even to the villagers. One day, one of the village girls followed the hunter and saw him with a forest beauty. The angry girl decided to outwit the guy, she took a sleepy potion from the healer and gave them a hunter. He fell so fast asleep that he could not go to meet his beloved, who was waiting for him in the thicket of the forest.
The forest beauty found him sleeping near a tree, began to wake him, but he only slept soundly, protruding his lower lip. The beauty was the mistress of the forest and had great spells. Offended by her lover, she decided to turn it into a flower. The shape of the flower resembled an open pharynx. But the forest mistress did not leave her beloved hunter. Often she turned into a golden bee, flew to a flower and drank fragrant nectar from his lips. Isn't it beautiful!
Broadleaf plant description
This species was first described by Karl Linney and named Serapias Longifolia. But soon this name was recognized illegal, and Philip Miller defined Serapias palustris.
What does this grass look like that grows in a swamp? These are grassy bushes 30-70 cm high. They are distinguished by a long, stolonoid, branched, creeping rhizome with additional roots.
The upper part of the stem is slightly pubescent, has a light green or pinkish tint. The arrangement of leaves is another. They have an oblong-lanceolate, pointed shape up to 20 cm long. At the top, the leaves are already small, similar to bracts.
Flower shape
It is important to note that young plants do not bloom, flowers appear only after eleven years of life. The inflorescence has the shape of a brush. In each of them is from six to 20 flowers with bracts. Anyone familiar with orchids will immediately imagine the shape of this flower. He has a protruding, oblong lip without a spur.
The folded petals are wrinkled, divided into two parts. They are white with purple streaks. But there is also a dark red Swamp napkin, a description of which you will see later. The flowers have six different in shape and brightness of the color of the petals with elegant frills and dots. Heads of flowers lowered down as if dozing in anticipation of the moment of pollination.
Pollination methods
The flowers have a straight down ovary. The nectar of the Swamp napkin has a stupefying property. It attracts insects for pollination. Small creatures are the main means and method of pollination. Bumblebees, wasps, ants often sit on a plant. But sometimes self-pollination occurs. The flowering period is June-July. Seeds ripen in September, have a dusty shape. A plant can propagate by seed or division of the root. In one ripened box can be about 3000 specks of dust.
There are two main types of napkin: wintry and dark red. We have described you the flowers of the wintery species.
Habitat
Where does the napkin marsh live? He loves the outskirts of swamps, forest glades, groundwater outcrops, thawed areas, limestones, marshy forests, moist meadows. Sometimes it can be found even in ditches and along the edges of highways and railways. Prefers neutral and alkaline soils. The area of its growth is Western Europe, Scandinavia, Iran, the Himalayas, the Mediterranean of Asia Minor. It also occurs in the latitudes of North America, Africa, Eurasia. In Russia, it grows in the Caucasus, in Western and Eastern Siberia. It can also be found in the Crimea. The plant is very fond of light, rarely found in shading.
Dark Red Dremlik
Dremlik dark purple - a beautiful miniature orchid. These flowers grow near the banks of the Ural river Vagran. A small reserve was formed here. People came here in July to admire the dark red bouquets. Long roots allow the plant to gain a foothold even on rocks of rocky cliffs.
Dark red napkin also grows in the Sverdlovsk region, sometimes found in the Tyumen and Chelyabinsk regions, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and the Ulyanovsk region. It also grows in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states. In July, dark red napkin has a sweet smell of vanilla, which attracts bees, wasps, bumblebees, beetles, thirsty for nectar. Thanks to them, a wild orchid is pollinated and then propagated by ripened seeds.
