Wild Orchids Monte Sacro

The wild orchids of Monte Sacro on the Gargano Peninsula in Italy are extraordinary in variety. This is the first in a series of textile collages celebrating their beauty. This piece has Orchis quadripunctata and an Ophrys that suspect has mixed parentage, I have found no trace of it in reference books. It is a delight of Ophrys that they interbreed and create even more fascinating shapes and patterns. They grow among limestone rocks encrusted with lichens which I have described in hand-dyed and patterned silks.