Autumn lady''s tresses
When I got up this morning the sun was shining, and on looking out the window Foxy-loxy was asleep again under the slide! I took a few pics, and seeing as the weather was good went for a quick tripette to sunny Shoreham!
I decided to go to Mill Hill first to have a look for any remaining Adonis blues, and was rewarded with not only Adonis blues, but a few Chalkhill blues, a few common blues, Numerous Meadow browns, and two very flighty Clouded yellows.
I stopped on the path to rescue a fairly small ground beetle which rewarded me with a painful bite! I won't be doing that again!!
Having meandered around for a while chasing fast disappearing butterflies it was getting darker by the minute, I then decided I needed to make my way back to the car but would look for the Autumn gentians I had seen on my way along the path.
I eventually found the Autumn gentians, which I had planned to blip, but they go usurped by this beautiful Autumn lady's tresses orchid Spiranthes spiralis growing right beside them.
At only 7 -20cm tall, Autumn lady's tresses are difficult to spot, but if you do happen to see them they are well worth a second look (preferably in close up). They occur mostly on short close cropped grassland, overlaying chalk or limestone-
The flower spike arises out of a basal rosette of shiny oval-elliptical leaves, which are often withered before the flower spike is fully developed, The stem leaves are are scale-like and overlapping, the bracts are shorter than the white 6-7mm long flowers.
The white flowers are typically 'orchid like ' and spiral around the stem, making it almost impossible to get them all in focus!
It flowers from August to September.
I have chosen a picture taken using the extension tube with my macro so you can fully appreciate the beauty of the tiny flowers.
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