Chiltern gentian

Chiltern gentians, Gentianella germanica, are just about at their best around now, but there are still lots of plants in bud. At the nature reserve we saw our first plants in full flower in mid July and it looks as though we will still have some flowering around the end of this month. There aren't many wild flowers that give a fantastic display for almost 3 months! I don't think our main colony will be as prolific as last year - around 21,000 flowering spikes! - but it's been good to find gentians thriving in all the usual places. Also, I walked round with a botanist friend who is a gentian expert yesterday and he confirmed my identification of one colony as hybrid plants between Chiltern gentian and Autumn gentian, known as Gentianella pamplinii after the famous 19th century botanist William Pamplin.