Bee orchids

And I think if you're unwell, to be able to distract yourself with, um, that quest for knowledge is- is quite exciting.

So yeah, that was, I suppose, quite early on in the journey in that once I'd seen these wild orchids, I wanted to know everything about them and learn more about, uh, their mimicry as well in the Ophrys genus, the way in which they can, um, deceive digger wasps into thinking that they're, you know, attractive young female wasps that they want to mate with.

Um, th- how a plant has evolved to do that is so awe inspiring that it can't help but just give you just a, I suppose almost like an antidepressant lift.

Well, it did for me anyway.

The mountain held their history, their authority, their accumulated sense of themselves as the rightful rulers of a cosmos they had governed since before the Olympians drew breath.

To lose Ophrys was not simply to lose a military position.

It was to lose the ground on which their identity stood.

They knew this.