White Helleborine

I was leading a work party at the nature reserve today. Around the area where we were cutting some patches of thick scrub there were lots of orchids - Twayblade, Fly, Greater Butterfly, Common Spotted...and just a few plants of this one - White Helleborine, Cephalanthera damasonium. It is very much at home in the deep shade of beech trees and dense scrub in the Chilterns. A few plants today had the creamy-white flowers beginning to form properly. They rarely open much more that the ones seen in the photograph, hence the common name of Poached Egg Plant. When they are fully mature you can look between the petals to find a rich egg yoke-yellow centre.