looduskalender.ee

 

Red helleborine

Punane tolmpea

Cephalanthera rubra

 

With the choice of the Orchid of the Year, attention is focused on protecting the habitats of one of our most beautiful, delicate and large-flowered orchids, and on surveying the threats to it.

The red helleborine plants may grow to be tens of years old, but they are not found every year. Quite regularly the plant from time to time remains dormant and can take a rest period of up to two years. After this rest the plants are often larger and sturdier since they have been nourished by the fungus mycelium growing around the roots. The red helleborine is very sensitive to mowing and picking, which may even kill the plant.

Being insect pollinated, the red helleborine attracts bees with its bright flower colour although there is no nectar in its flowers. The plant makes use of the fact that insects see red and blue as similar for its own purposes. When an insect has had a sweet mouthful from a blue bellflower, it hopes for the same thing from the red helleborine flowers, and by way of this deception the red helleborine flowers are pollinated.

As a chalk-loving species the red helleborine in Estonia mainly grows in alvar forests but also among bush vegetation, in dry soil pine forests, and occasionally at road verges on limestone pebbles. The plants prefer semi-shade, they are seldom found in wholly open spaces. In Estonia the red helleborine may be found on the western islands, the western part of the mainland and in Pandivere. The northern limit of this species isn’t far from us – already in southern Finland the red helleborine belongs to the very rare species.

Eesti Orhideekaitse Klubi, the Estonian Orchid Protection Club, celebrates its 25th year with the announcement of the Orchid of the Year.