Perhaps few people know that the species richest in plants, orchids, are not only found in the tropics. About 25,000 species live on Earth, and there are also hundreds of species in Europe. Nearly 70 of them live in Hungary, and some of them can be found near Baja.
In mid-May, we managed to find the orchid, which is especially rare in Kiskunság, on the border of Baja. Varied speckled wine (Neotinea tridentata) is a small, impressive looking orchid, typical of the hills and mountains of Hungary, Of which we know only a few on the Great Plain. For this reason, the East Baja leg was found to be a very interesting piece of data, which was the earliest known known terraces in the Szekszárd Hills and in the Miklapuszta region.
Tiny orchid seeds can travel hundreds of miles with the help of the wind, so they can sometimes appear in surprising places far beyond their range. Their seeds can only grow in a place where there is also the fungal partner that lives in the soil,
Because orchids can only absorb some nutrients from the soil with the help of root-related fungi.
This type of relationship also benefits both parties, the fungi and the orchid, as the fungi, in turn, receive some of the sugars that orchids produce from the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere using sunlight. Science calls this innate relationship. Multicolored speckled wine also proves that the landscapes of Bačka still hold real surprises for both nature-lovers and researchers.
(Source: Kiskunság National Park)
