bronze bollocks

I’m a mouthy little specimen,
with pheromone breath enticing,
come, crawl up my labellum,
to my anther so inviting.
Let my petals guide your flight,
there’s just two, but sepals aid,
come on, come in, don’t fight,
the stigma’s worth the pollen paid.

This is a chiloglottis (chilo – lips, glottis – mouth of the windpipe) orchid (orchis -testicles) or in old English, the ballockwort (yes, bollock herb), more commonly known as a bronze wasp orchid. I found a small cluster of them yesterday, uphill a bit from the greenhoods in a slightly drier area. In my search to identify it’s species I’ve read a bit about orchids and orchid anatomy, and, really, who names these things???  I can imagine a lot of botanists in their big brown boots (the botany students all wore big brown boots when I was at uni) all sniggering and nudging each other. 

Here it is in profile: