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2019 UK Orchids (1 Viewer)

Apigmentous BLH

Last weekend I was down in the Cirencester area for a few days. On the way to the hotel, stopped off at Leckhampton to have a look at the Broad-leaved Helleborine I found back in 2015 that lacked both any chlorophyll or colour pigments. It is still going, but looking a sorry specimen. I cannot imagine its flower opening this year.
 

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Violet Helleborine

In Lower Woods we found both Broad-leaved and Violet Helleborines. Not may of either - up here in N.E. Wales and Shropshire put on a better show of both. This plant grabbed my attention. While others have declared it to be a Violet Hellborine, to me it lacks that translucent quality of that species. The cup of the epichile is much darker than any VH I have seen I suspect Epipactis x schulzii, but know other will disagree - perhaps because they didn't see it first.
 

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Narrow-lipped Helleborine

Supplied with a GR we ventured into no-man's land of Sommerset near the village of Bisley to find an E. leptochila. It was down a single file road with no real passing places, including what seemed to be going through someone's back yard. How this single plant hasn't been squashed by tyres is a miracle, but at least it is immune to deer and slugs. Should be nicely in flower now.
 

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Blw

For those within hopping distance of Wrexham I recommend a visit to Minera Lead Mines. In the vicinity of the visitor centre and along the trackbed of the old mineral railway to just past the road to World's End are thousands of Broad-leaved Helleborines. Just past that road I stood and counted 200 hundred spikes before I gave up. They range in colour from the palest lemon yellow to the deepest purple. If you can't make it this weekend then pencil it in for 2020.
 

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Supplied with a GR we ventured into no-man's land of Sommerset near the village of Bisley to find an E. leptochila. It was down a single file road with no real passing places, including what seemed to be going through someone's back yard. How this single plant hasn't been squashed by tyres is a miracle, but at least it is immune to deer and slugs. Should be nicely in flower now.

Steve

Bisley is a long way north of Somerset!!

Rich
 
In Lower Woods we found both Broad-leaved and Violet Helleborines. Not may of either - up here in N.E. Wales and Shropshire put on a better show of both. This plant grabbed my attention. While others have declared it to be a Violet Hellborine, to me it lacks that translucent quality of that species. The cup of the epichile is much darker than any VH I have seen I suspect Epipactis x schulzii, but know other will disagree - perhaps because they didn't see it first.

Are there any other photos of this plant Steve?

Rich
 
None that really add to it. What in particular do you want to see?

A close up of the flower to get a better idea of the colour of the interior of the hypochile (I can see it looks dark but is that red, brown or olive), a view of the leaves to see their shape and colour, and the base of the stem to see what colour it is.

Rich
 
The base of the stem was in undergrowth. I would say the interior of the cup is brown with a splash of red. Not olive at all.
 
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The base of the stem was in undergrowth. I would say the interior of the cup is brown with a splash of red. Not olive at all.

I assume you didn't see the leaves Steve?

Not a lot to go on, it just looks like a funny Violet. Whether it is outside the bounds of Violet I'll leave you to judge.

Personally, I doubt it's a F1 hybrid, in my experience they don't really look like either parent. It might be a back-cross with some previous introgression from BLH, they probably look more like one of the parents (I've had a few examples that I think are back-crosses, but proving them is another matter)

Rich
 
I assume you didn't see the leaves Steve?

Not a lot to go on, it just looks like a funny Violet. Whether it is outside the bounds of Violet I'll leave you to judge.

Personally, I doubt it's a F1 hybrid, in my experience they don't really look like either parent. It might be a back-cross with some previous introgression from BLH, they probably look more like one of the parents (I've had a few examples that I think are back-crosses, but proving them is another matter)

Rich

Thanks for the informetive reply Rich.
Much better than one reply I had on social media - simply 'Violet Helleborine' or similar.
 
For those within hopping distance of Wrexham I recommend a visit to Minera Lead Mines. In the vicinity of the visitor centre and along the trackbed of the old mineral railway to just past the road to World's End are thousands of Broad-leaved Helleborines. Just past that road I stood and counted 200 hundred spikes before I gave up. They range in colour from the palest lemon yellow to the deepest purple. If you can't make it this weekend then pencil it in for 2020.

(a week on from Steve's posting) Just to confirm - yes, a wonderful show, although they are of course generally beginning to be just past their best now and some well over. And yes, there are some very nice pale specimens. It really is worth a walk from the Minera Lead Mines to Minera Quarry.

Martin

PS Thanks to Muba and to Rich for keeping this site alive and kicking. We continue to find the discussion invaluable especially as we are somewhat confined for health reasons to our patch here in N.E.Wales and are continuing our quasi-Luddite abstention from (some aspects of) social media!
 
This may be of interest to contributors to this thread.

https://www.birdguides.com/news/rare-orchid-found-flowering-in-wales-for-first-time/#

All the best
Tom

Thank you for posting this. It is a really exciting development, particularly as we remember a trip a few years ago to the Outer Hebrides and to the westernmost part of mainland Scotland where we saw isolated plants and were even privileged to find one still in bud at Loch Shiel. Let us hope this is just the first of a series of such discoveries!

Martin
 
This may be of interest to contributors to this thread.

https://www.birdguides.com/news/rare-orchid-found-flowering-in-wales-for-first-time/#

All the best
Tom

It's a superb find this although it was really only a matter of time. So thrilled this has turned up on my old patch where I spent a good few years hunting down the county's orchids armed with Arthur Chater's flora (an incredible piece of work). I must've walked past these a couple of times!

I'll be popping over at the end of the week to have a look.

Thanks
Mike
 
Broad-leaved again

Another extensive Broad-leaved Helleborine site close to Wrexham is down the rough roadway to Nant-y-Ffith. An easy walk down, but you do have to walk up again. There are hundreds in flower now, some gone over, and some still in bud. Again loads of colour variation, nice clumps of several spikes, a chance of finding a truly deep purple flower, and for those with a taste for the grotesque some with a flower mutation resulting in 4-8 columns per flower.
 

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Violet Helleborine

The Violet Helleborines at Coalbrookdale should be at their best about now. A week ago only a few were in flower, but still the roadside site was better than ever. There was a bit of a scramble to see the clump of 10 spikes, but more than I have seen before along the roadside. In the woodland trails no so good, but there was a nice specimen with virtually no pigmentation. It looked almost crystalline.
 

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Autumn beckons

The Autumn Lady's Tresses at Gop Hill are just startiing to flower, and will be a fantastic sight next weekend. There are thousands there, better even than last year. It may be impossible not to step on a few. They have even spread down to below the footpath with the Y Gop direction post. Worth a visit soon.
 

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