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Burnt Orchid
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| burnt orchid-01 | burnt orchid-02 | |
This pretty little orchid has declined severely over the years. Once found on all the limestone and chalk areas of England, and just into Wales, the stronghold is now in Wiltshire, Hampshire and East Sussex, with a few outlying populations in Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Kent, and further north in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire. There are two forms, early and late flowering, generally not found on the same sites. These are early flowering, taken of one of only seven flowering spikes found at Parsonage Farm NNR in Wiltshire, in mid-May 2007. I had expected to find many more in flower, but was clearly too early for them.