Atroruben orchid Photos from Hutton Roof (8th July 2017)

A lovely Ringlet Butterfly seen on my approach to the Orchids on Sat 9th July 2017 (Click over to enlarge)

Saturday 8th July 2017 - Hutton Roof 1300hrs to 1700hrs

I noticed today several Small Tortoishell Butterflies which are always nice to see and I would have thought looking at the numbers there could well have been a recent hatch.  Also I saw lots and lots of both Ringlets and Meadow Browns, also did have a couple of Dark Green Fritillaries which were very flitty.  Also a couple of Grayling and also one or two little Small Heaths flying past.

Also nice to see the "White" Self Heals coming through, if anything there could well be more than last year.  Here is a photo from yesterday.

A lovely "White" Self Heal (Click over to enlarge)

Also today found a new colony of spent Angular Solomon's Seal for the record and did also manage to record a new patch of Hypericum Perforatum and also additional Pulchrum colonies.

Again too windy to get the best photography but we persevered and managed one or two, but also bright! (dont like bright on photos!).  Checked out 33 and its offspring etc etc. then checked the one and only 55 and then over to the variagated (doing well) and past yet another dreadful site at No.15 - Mr. Hare must have come back to get him and sure enough the top had gone, well at least this time it does look like he had devoured instead of leaving the snipped casualty. Then over to the escarp and took one or two, then over to 17s, 70s and finished off with the 9-11s. Most of the better stuff is going over very quickly and for the photos maybe a day or two at the most left in it.

Two which I had completed missed which were sort of camouflaged to the side of a good juniper bush.  The first Escarp 15 is a very pale plant but seems to have a lilac epichiles, I thought at first I was seeing things and then it became apparent it sure did have lilac epichiles, but sadly the plant is going over very quickly.  And next door to it within inches was yet another hybrid with a very light green stem and typical of a lot of these young hybrids (or breed backs) were they have very bendy stems and beautiful contrasting coloured flowers.  Here are a couple of photos to show you.

This one nearly got missed - Escarp 15
(Click over to enlarge)

 Very unusual colouring of the epichile "lilac" and a nice green stem and ovaries in this specimen. I can't really say I have had this colour before.  And right next door within inches was this lovely bendy light green specimen Escarp 16 with beautifully contrasting red flowers.  I am quite convinced that both of these the Escarp 15 and 16 will be related. Just glad I found them before they went completely over.

Escarp 16 (Click over to enlarge)

Here is today's photo's of the beautiful 17b (for beauty). I like this because of the contrasting colours of the petal/sepal but even more striking is the wide keeled leaves which seem to be a "in-between but perhaps leaning towards helleborine".  The complete area of 17 holds up to 20 plants which are all hybrids of sort and a area were most of the plants have very large "helleborine" type leaves.

This is the beautiful 17b for beauty (Click to enlarge)
see the next photo showing close up of plume

Specimen 17b (Click over to enlarge)

The following is a very special plant and we have to keep it in a cage away from predators. I found it back in 2014 and at that time it was only the second to ever been found in England, although a previous had been found in Cumbria and also a specimen was found on the Burren. It is what we call a "Lutescens". A sort of "lempet" but only comes through to about 10" and is lemon-petalled together with "white epichile and bosses". 

Variety - Lutescens first found back in 2014
Click over to enlarge

And up to the 9 and the 11s and here we have 9a which is such a pale plant and so interesting.  I feel it does originate from 9 which was a stunning plant.  Here is one of her offspring with 9a (so far I have found ten offspring).

9a on 8th July 2017 (Click to enlarge)

And here is a close up of 9a.

Close up of 9a (Click over to enlarge)

Here we have a nice photo taken today from the new trio 17 d,e,f.

17d,17e,17f on 8th July 2017 (click over to enlarge)

This is a lovely looking small Atrorubens which I found yesterday whilst coming off.

A atrorubens found 8th July 2017 (Click to enlarge)

Yesterday I also went across to the 9s and the 11s and managed to get a closer shot of the number 11 original and it is still a beauty which was back in 2014 21 1/2" high and had 46 flowers. It is a strong green stem with lovely contrasting red flowers.  The ovarys are also light green just has you get throughout the 9s and 11s (which are probably related).  He is a shot from yesterday of the original 11 and then I will show how 11 looked back in 2014 and one other you may wish to take into consideration is 11b which I did find a week or so ago which has now been predated.  Good similarity!

11 - photo taken yesterday 8th July 2017 (Click over to enlarge)

11 - photo taken on 7th July 2014 (Click over to enlarge)

11b photo taken on 3rd July 2014 (Click over to enlarge)

Now then you can see lots of 11 in the bottom photo which is 11b, the only thing I can find which is different is probably the darker ovary in this specimen, and that's just what goes on here (well at least in part).  The plant is perhaps some 100 yards East of the original 11 specimen and they are obviously picking up mixes from closeby.