Martin's Sussex Birding Blog: Narrow-lipped, Broad-leaved and Violet Helleborine

Monday, 22 July 2019

Narrow-lipped, Broad-leaved and Violet Helleborine

I picked Dave up at 07.30 and we headed north into Surrey. We were on a mission to mop up a few of our outstanding Helleborines. Narrow-lipped Epipactis leptochila, Broad-leaved Epipactis helleborine, and Violet Epipactis purpurata.

Research on the web had indicated Sheepleas near East Horsley as being one of the most reliable sites for the Narrow-lipped so that was our starting point. On the map Sheepleas looks like any other small Surrey Woodland but it is one of the original 285 Rothschild Reserves and is a awash with an abundance summer flowers and insects.

Knowing that your target can be found at Sheepleas makes it sound easy but with 240 acres to search it could be a daunting task. However find them we did.

Narrow-lipped Helleborines

Narrow-lipped Helleborine

Walking further into the woods we also came across a few Broad-leaved Helleborines

Broad-leaved Helleborine

Broad-leaved Helleborine - on the left above

Only one was starting to open and it carried very dark coloured flowers. I had spotted one near Buchan Park Crawley a few days earlier that was a much paler colour.

Broad-leaved Helleborine - Buchan Park

No sign of Violet Helleborines at Sheepleas so it was on over the border into Hampshire where they can be seen on roadside verges around a housing estate in Four Marks. Credit to the Wildlife Support and Conservation team for pursuing protected verges signs and full marks to a lot of the residents for looking after the verges but it is clear that not everyone is cooperating.

An interesting article about these Violet Helleborines can be found here. The most surprising comment was that in July 2014 "residents in Fairfield Green cut down orchids on a Highway verge and the reason they gave was that they did not like people walking by and looking at them"?