Month: August 2014

Today is probably just about my last orchid hunting trip of the season as Autumn Ladies Tresses are the last orchid species to flower in the UK, so today I visited Badbury Rings to find Autumn Ladies Tresses and Autumn Gentians.

The Autumn Ladies Tresses were easy to find along the outside edge of the middle ring, whereas the Autumn Gentians took a little more searching for as they are really quite small.

Tonight, I re-visited Wilverley Plain after being given the heads up that the Field Gentians (Gentianella campestris) were in flower.  I’d missed these on my first visit as I hadn’t been in quite the right place.

This time I approached from the A35 side of Wilverley Plain and found the Field Gentians at the edge of the lawn just about where the heather starts to come in (thanks for the heads up Chris).

Here are the best of tonights photos.

As far as I can see, the Field Gentian is very similar to the Autumn Gentian (Gentianella amarella) with the exception that the latter tends to be found on dry calcareous grasslands, which Wilverley Plain is most definitely not.  I am sure that there are other, more subtle physical differences between the two species, I have to confess that I’m not a good enough botanist to know what they are.

I’ve been waiting to visit this site to see the Autumn Ladies Tresses (Sprianthes spiralis) since I was told about it by a friend right at the start of the orchid season (thanks Ian).

The short turf of the forest lawn at this site must be ideal for these beautiful orchids as there were literally thousands of flower spikes, many still in bud, but a good proportion were in full flower, although the best specimens took  a bit of searching out.

Here are todays best shots.