Why a Booktrail?
2000s: One young boy’s fascination with the natural world
The Orchid Hunter
What you need to know before your trail
In the summer after leaving school, a young botanist sets out to fulfil a childhood dream – to find every species of orchid native to the British Isles.He has just a few months to complete his quest – no one has ever done it before within one growing season- and it will require ingenuity, stamina and a large dose of luck. Like Two Owls at Eton and My Family and Other Animals, The Orchid Hunter I is a charming account of a precocious adolescent’s obsession with the natural world.
Travel Guide
UK
This study of the 52 native species is a fantastic gateway into the compendious world of orchids – one that will open your eyes to the rare hidden delights to be found on the doorstep. Leif’s enthusiasm for his quest is infectious, as is the quiet conviction with which he keeps at it, showing how plant hunting can be the ultimate mindful activity.
The varied geology of the British Isles and the distrubrion of our orchids are fundamentally linked, sometomes so closely that knowing the underlying rock type can help pin down an identification:
Figsbury
Where he finds a Bee Orchid on the ramparts
Bentley Wood
Shakespeare’s long purples:
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow flowers, nettles, daisies and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them (Hamlet)
Kent
Kent is renowned for being the orchid capital of the UK, hosting well over half of our native species including some that are found nowhere else in the county.
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds AONB is a vast area of stunning greenery where he finds the Greater Butterfly Orchids and the Red Helleborine
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Orchid Hunter
Destination: UK, Ireland Author/Guide: Leif Bersweden Departure Time: 2000s
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