Kate McLoughlin
speaker
99 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 6 Jul
Kate McLoughlin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
There are underground funguses which live on the roots of grasses.
So you find this growing in grass because the funguses are on the grass roots.
And they encourage the tiny, powder-fine orchid seeds to begin to grow and evolve themselves as a food store with enough resources to actually flower in this spectacular flower that resembles various things.
That is remarkable.
But I have seen the seeds of the bee orchids and they are as fine as talcum powder, probably thousands in your fingers.
And when you throw them on the ground here among the grasses and the other herbs and flowers, you're hoping that they'll make their way down into the soil and meet the fungus that's on the roots of the grass.
And it could take them five or even 10 years to reappear as a flower.
You might not see anything next year.
Well, apparently the Irish maugherline refers to many orchids, but actually it means a testicle.
And so does the Greek word, which is part of their Latin name, orchis, also means a testicle.
Apparently, if you dig them up, it looks like one of those.
Up above ground, it is dramatically glamorous.
Flowers are the sexual organs of plants and orchids illustrate this very clearly.
They are an invitation to a passing insect usually.
Come along, I'm gorgeous, give us a kiss, pollinate me.
And that will make it fertile.
Some of them are very conspicuous.
They imitate flies.
There's one called a butterfly orchid, a fly orchid.
The frog orchid.
Showing 41–60 of 99 · page 3 of 5
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