Early this morning the boys and myself had a nice wander around a local country park, as we regularly do. The sun was out as we meandered along the pathways and tracks that lead from field to woods to grassland to rivers edge. In one part of a field I spotted something that looked out of place amongst the masses of dandelion heads and grasses. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a single GREEN-WINGED ORCHARD just showing above the grass. Now these are quite rare in my neck of the woods, and although I only recently found out that these beautiful little plants were growing somewhere in this park I had yet to come across one on my many walks there.
So I,ve done a little research about these orchids and found out that they flower in May or June with a cluster of pinky-purple flowers, sometimes white and grow in unimproved grasslands, I,m guessing that means grassy fields that are only cut not fertilised etc. They’re classified as ‘Near Threatened on the Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain’, are pollinated by bumblebees and are pretty rare in the Essex area.
