I have commented before on the range of ‘nature’ that surrounds us here. We also often admire the efficiency of French public services from which we benefit. Today, I experienced a conflict between these two good aspects of our new life.
Walking up the hill to the llamas, I spotted a bee orchid growing on the roadside. These were rare sightings on the chalk downs of my childhood, but apparently are pretty common around the Mediterranean. Their amazing flowers are remarkably like bees in appearance, and it appears that they fool bees into attempting to mate with them, and so pollen gets transferred and the flowers fertilised. According to scientist Richard Dawkins, bees in the past have caused the evolution of bee orchids. Male bees, over many generations of cumulative orchid evolution, have built up the bee-like shape through trying to copulate with flowers that look most convincingly like bees, and hence carrying their pollen.
On returning home, I got out my camera and took some pictures (including the one here).
Within minutes, along come a pair of large tractors, with high-tech flail mowers, and neatly trim all the road verges within the village boundary. And yes, the orchid is gone . . . .
Such are the contradictions of life. Perhaps the orchid could only grow where the grass was shorter, because of previous mowing.
