Long Purples

Out in the field all day, first checking on our local population of Deptford Pink, and then tetrad recording in Pointon, where I found yet another population of Musk Stork's-bill. I took a slightly devious route home and stopped off at a protected road verge just west of Hanthorpe. Lots of interesting species present in the grassland, including a large population of Dropwort and several colonies of Early Purple-orchids, looking so beautiful in the surprisingly warm sun. The Early Purple-orchid is the "long purple" of Ophelia's garland, as referred to by Gertrude in Shakespeare's Hamlet:
"Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, that liberal shepards give a grosser name".