The grower of the mystery orchid has confirmed my suspicion that it was indeed an Anacamptis longicornu. It is now completely in flower and as soon as possible I'll try and study it really closely to learn as much as I can. The first thing I have noticed is the shape of the forming buds on all the Anacamptis species I have (except the A. papilionacea of course) and how similar they are, and the very distinctive shape of the spurs is very clear. At some point I will also try to both freeze some pollinia for hybridising and pollinate a couple of ovaries.
The grower concerned seemed surprised at the mixup and suggested that the labels may have been swapped at the event I purchased them at, which I can well believe since it was a bit of a scrum! I reassured him that I was very happy with the plant, which is not only lovely but of excellent quality.
Buoyed by the response from the grower above I returned to Svante Malmgren's website; most of the key methods of terrestrial orchid seed sowing were developed by him and he is regarded as a leading expert in the field. So it was with some trepidation that I emailed him asking for some advice. I was amazed at the speed and the generosity of his response and I am now really excited about the chance to crack the nut of asymbiotic seed sowing.
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