Snippets of Wealth - Sat 18th May 2019 - Hutton Roof Common and Burton Fell/Heath Milkwort/Fly Orchid/Dark Red Helleborine

Sat 18th May 2019 - Hutton Roof Common and Burton Fell

First job was checking out the large amounts of variable coloured Milkwort which ranged from white, blue and white, green and white to china blue to deep royal blue. The only regular colour I could not find amongst them which would have completed the colours was "pink".

I must have examined over 20 specimens to see if they had opposite side basal leaves (like a propeller) and sure enough they all qualified for Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) both on the Hutton Roof Common and again sampled populations on Burton Fell. 

Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) - Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019
Shows the low down basal leaves set at true opposite sides of the stem (like a propeller which confirms it to be "Heath Milkwort".

 Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) - Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019
Shows both the leaf structure together with the lower down basal leaves
 set at true opposite sides of the stem which confirms "Heath Milkwort".
A nice royal blue specimen

 Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) - Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019
Shows the low down basal leaves set at true opposite sides of the stem and look like a propeller which confirms "Heath Milkwort".

 Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) - Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019
Shows both the leaf structure together with the lower down basal leaves
 set at true opposite sides of the stem which confirms "Heath Milkwort".
A nice light purple and white specimen

Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) - Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019
A nice white with green specimen

 Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) - Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019
Shows both white and blue close together

Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) - Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019
Shows white collective

 Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) - Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019
Shows light blue collective

Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort) - Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019
Shows nice blue flower with white

Moving on from the Milkwort, one of my main objectives today was to check out the Fly Orchids. They are coming through at least 3 sites were I visited. They are doing well and in the majority of cases they just have one flower and will be about 2 weeks off their best. I did manage to take photos of a couple of them

Ophrys insectifera (Fly Orchid) Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019

Ophrys insectifera (Fly Orchid) Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019


And now I moved on and checked out our atrorubens (Dark Red Helleborines and helleborine (Broad Leaved Helleborine) orchids.  Some of them are now showing and were about 3" high, but a lot of them were still not showing. Maybe I should be a little concerned in that the ones not showing are the ones that suffered last year from the draught and were killed off part way through their early day growth, so I guess its a wait and see period over the coming 10 days. It might just be they need a little longer.  But below are a few photos. I also decided to have lunch and sat down close to populations no.9 and within minutes a Hare leapt up and out of a nearby Juniper bush and I don't know who was the more startled! it must have been hiding there and ran within a metre of my feet. I never saw Mr. Hare at all last year so obviously he his still about! 

 Epipactis helleborine var: variagated (Click over to enlarge)
Photo: Hutton Roof 18th May 2019

Epipactis atrorubens Specimen 11 (Dark Red Helleborine) Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof 18th May 2019

Epipactis atrorubens (Dark Red Helleborine) Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof 18th May 2019

 Epipactis atrorubens (Dark Red Helleborine) Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof 18th May 2019

 Epipactis atrorubens (Dark Red Helleborine) Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof 18th May 2019

You might not think it looking at the above photo,
 but this was the "albiflora" back in 2016 which
produced the beautiful flower you can see in the next photo below
although today it looks very much Dark Red Helleborine

Epipactis atrorubens var: albiflora back in 2016 (Click over to enlarge)
Photo: Taken by Graham Preston - Hutton Roof 

Epipactis helleborine (Broad Leaved Helleborine)
Photo: Hutton Roof on 18th May 2019

There are several of these rare "Whitebeams" on the common and they all have their slight variations on one another.  The species is called Sorbus lancastriensis and is a speciality of the local area. I am told the best way to tell the difference from a regular Whitebeam is to count the veins in the leaf and if you count between 8 to 10 pairs it is likely to be the rare lancastriensis, but if the pairs exceed this amount it is more than likely to be the regular Whitebeam.

Convallaria majalis (Lily of the Valley) Click over to enlarge
Photo: Burton Fell, Hutton Roof on 18th May 2019

Checking out lots more Convallaria majalis (Lily of the Valley) today which is now at about its best but so hard to photograph with being white. Also today checking out Polygonatum odoratum (Angular Solomons Seal) but this population today still had its flowers erect before they droop to hanging, so expect another 10 days at least. 

Thalictrum minus (Lesser Meadow Rue) Click over to enlarge
Photo: Hutton Roof Common on 18th May 2019

The beautiful Thalictrum minus (Lesser Meadow Rue) is just coming out and always looks well, although it will be another week or two before the flowers appear.