Green-flowered Helleborines

Getting bored with reading about Orchids? So am I. It's been an interesting diversion during a very quiet summer but I am getting to a tipping point. Any further and I am into the realms of hybrids and variants and I will need to seek support from experts. They often seem to have their own conflicting views. Given the confusion I am experiencing from variation within species, purely based on location and growing conditions, I don't think I want to get in any deeper.

I still have Orchids on my to see list but they all require significant travelling:- 

Coral Root

Lesser Twayblade

Lesser Butterfly

Lady's Slipper

Lindisfarne Helleborine

Creeping Lady's Tresses

Small White Orchid

and I suppose if I ever come across a Ghost Orchid or a Summer Lady's Tresses, I will be happy to add it to the list. But, its like any addiction, get out before you get in too deep and it takes over your life!

Today was a trip out to look for Green-flowered and Broad-leaved Helleborines closer to home. Research on the web had given us a couple of locations although the information was mostly eight to ten years old. The Green-flowered site looked particularly suspect when viewed on Google Earth whilst the Broad-leaved site had produced one specimen in bud when I had visited it a few weeks ago. Still we had nothing better so it was worth giving it a go.

Green-flowered Helleborine

The location for the Green-flowered Helleborine was a lay-by on the busy A225 just south of Eynsford. As we pulled into the lay-by it looked less than encouraging. The grass verge had been strimmed, there was litter and deposits of various liquids including engine oil on the verge. Yet as Dave stepped out of the car the first thing he saw was the Helleborines. Small and weedy looking examples perhaps, but great to see them surviving in such a harsh environment.

Green-flowered Helleborines

Green-flowered Helleborine

Next stop was Target Hill Nature Reserve just south of Crawley. The reference I found on the web was for the north facing slope of Target Hill and three weeks ago I spent a couple of hours searching that area on the south side of the A264. I found nothing but before leaving I had a quick walk along the footpath on the north side of the road. Just one specimen found in bud but it was reason enough to go back.

I had my doubts, the one I found would have gone over, would there be any more? In fact there were hundreds, or at least well over a hundred along the path and in the adjacent woods.

Broad-leaved Helleborine

There was quite a variation in size and colour even between plants growing side by side. Some of the plants with very pale flowers and seeming to lack the purple colours start to make you think about var. vidiflora which lacks the anthocyanins that produce the purple but I think I will just settle for the standard Broad-leaved.

Broad-leaved Helleborine - very pale flowers

Broad-leaved Helleborine

Broad-leaved Helleborine

Broad-leaved Helleborine

Broad-leaved Helleborine

Broad-leaved Helleborine

Broad-leaved Helleborine

A tip for photographers. Both sites were in heavy shade. I prefer to use natural light so again I was struggling with slow shutter speeds and narrow depth of field. The Green-flowered site would have been better visited in the afternoon when the sun would have been on the helleborines. For the Target Hill site there is no escaping the shadows. I suggest you take along some form of lighting as a back up.


Other than the Autumn Lady's Tresses this is probably my last orchid trip this year. I will be making the effort to pick up the missing ones, as per my list above, but this will be on an "as and when in the right area" basis, rather than setting out to finish the list in the shortest possible time. However, I will also be revisiting some of the sites we have seen this year. There is no doubt that finding a field covered in orchids or just a single plant in an otherwise barren area can really raise the spirits.