Peter Lawson

Song of the Greater Tongue Orchid

This is another addendum to the musical portraits of the 48 wild orchids of Britain and Ireland. This fiftieth portrait is for a newcomer, probably due to climate change. The Greater Tongue Orchid Serapias lingua sometimes known as ‘Common Tongue Orchid', has been gradually migrating northwards through France and has evidently jumped the channel into Southern England. The first British appearance of Greater Tongue Orchid was in South Devon, where, in 1998, three plants were found in a coastal hay meadow, the colony surviving for about five years and increasing to a maximum of nine plants. A large colony was found in May, 2017 in a meadow in central Essex and has expanded to 120 plants believed to have originated from one plant, reproducing itself vegetatively underground into exact clones of each other.
Greater Tongue Orchid has 4-5 linear to lanceolate leaves and its stems are from 10-30 cms in length. with 2-8 loosely-distributed flowers, situated almost horizontally up the stem, with the ‘tongue' hanging down.
The Song of the Greater Tongue Orchid, as in the other orchid portraits, employs, in places, a colour-coding scheme of harmonies. In the introduction, the ‘tongue' is evoked by gradually building up these colours in rather scary, tongue-like sequences, as if seeing this peculiar alien for the first time! This quickly gives way to the delight of witnessing an exotic new species, bedecked in a riot of colour. This section eventually gives way to ‘The Song' of the orchid itself, as if from its own point of view - serene and rather sad.
After this, music picks up in speed again and ends energetically with a passing reference to the ‘scary tongue' just before the end. Peter Lawson
Duration 7 minutes