Coalbrookdale 7th and 11th August 2021  

I look forward to seeing Violet Helleborines; they are high up in the top 10 of my favourite UK orchids. This site must be one of the best in terms of quantity and quality, and never disappoints. I wasn`t happy with my photos from the first day - it was drizzling and were meeting others - hence the return visit a few days later. Sadly, the 11-13 spike clump has had the flowers cut off, with what looks like scissors to me as the cut is so clean. However the consensus view is that deer are responsible. I cannot quite see this because the coppice is quite small at 30m x 150m, bounded by agricultural land, an industrial museum and housing. The road has street lamps and can be busy considering its size. Another roadside patch is also missing - not even leaves and stem, but all others are intact despite growing in equally vulnerable positions.
Over on the Paradise side of the valley there are some great plants, and this year we break from our regular route to take in some new woodland path, but no new finds are made.

The Var rosea is particularly splendid this year; perhaps the best I have seen it. It can be quite clearly seen from the road, but accessing it for a photo is difficult because of the slop and its resident slippy mud.

Alyn Waters Country Park 9th August 2021

Over at the Llay side today, specifically for the Green-flowered Helleborines. This is a good year for them. Perhaps the heatwave and the heavy rain came along at just the right time for them. There are slimline versions, thigh tall examples. multi-stem clusters, and those setting seed before flowering properly. A walk through the deepest woodland here is worth it. There is also a two stem Dune Helleborine in full flower. This is rather odd because the others were all finished at least a week ago. Is this one late because it does grow surrounded by trees? I can’t see any morphological differences to the typical plant.

Minera Railway 10th August 2021 (SJ261518) 

We walked alonmg this old mineral railway trackbed last autumn and spotted Broad-leaved Helleborines setting seed very nicely, and have come to see them in flower this year. I have decided to count this as a different site to Minera Quarry or Minera Lead Mines because of two reasons. Though the BLH may seem like a continuation between those sites there is a sizable break in the orchid populations either side, and there is a quite different habitat included as you will see.
There were more Broad-leaved Helleborines here than I suspected from last year’s visit, and in a great spectrum of colours. One nice plant had variegated leaves with dark, rather than pale stripes. We decided to deviate off the main railway trackbed and found ourselves skirting what turns out to be an old spoil heap from the limeworks at the quarry. A railway siding took the waste to be dumped here and quite a hillock was formed. Here were Lesser Twayblades, the occasional Marsh Fragrant Orchid, and some Pyramidal Orchids still in flower, together with Common Spotted Orchids that weren`t. At an exposed bit of the spoil was a crack, and water seepage had the beginnings of stalactites forming. The top of the spoil heap was like another world - very mossy and with a woodland of stunted silver birch; very Lord of the Rings. Here the Pyramidals were pale, tall and vey leggy. What would interest many botanists was the sheer number of Yellow Bird`s Nest growing. Literally hundreds, but sadly mainly gone over. One other plant of interest was the Round-leaved Wintergreen. A quite remarkable site well worth a visit next year.

 
                 The profusion of Broad-leaved Helleborines here                                          and the variegated leaves
  All very Middle Earth                            .

 
  The Yellow Bird`s Nest and the Round-leaved Wintergreen

  click to enlarge and see some unusual inhabitants in that crack in the spoil

Minera Lead Mines, 11th August 2021(SJ2751450929)  

Here, not expecting too much new - if anything, and it seems as if we may have missed the best. So many are starting to go over. Nevertheless we se a great range of colour and form from the broad-leaved Helleborines. There is one plant, so loose flowered, that there must be nearly and inch between each flower, and another where not another flower could be crammed onto the spike. And we find a habitat for these plants that does not get a mention in any of the orchid books - a pile of old bricks. Talk about extreme opportunistic colonisation!

Nant y Ffrith 19th August 2021(SJ26395392)

Nothing special to report here this year orchidwise. Plenty to see, and the grotesques with the column mutations still going strong. However, the land owner has put up very obvious No Parking signs at the top of the trail and the gate is now controlled by a keypad. You can of course just walk around the gate!

Esgyryn 26th August 2021(SH 80627 78933)  

When here in April I marked this place as a potential Autumn Lady’s-tresses site, and I was correct. The problem is that it is the tag end of summer and all the wildflowers and grasses are fully grown. There are paths to follow and some (not many) ALTs growing in patches where the vegetation is rather low. If there are ALTs in with all the wild flowers and grasses they would be hard to see and we do not want and should not want to go trampling through all that just to find out.

Gop Hill 26th August 2021(SJ 08790 80005)  

We did not come here in August 2021 having heard that sheep grazing had decimated the Autumn Lady’s-tresses. This year there are sheep there, and there has been some grazing with perhaps 50% of the flowers seen in 2019. However we are a tad early to see them at their best and perhaps another week would have had me revising that estimate .... but only if the grazing is restricted. Still, nice to see again.

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Pwll Melyn 28th August 2021 (SJ 18145 71892) 

We were last here two years ago to the day, and found it a delightful spot, with plenty of wildflowers and limestone outcrops. This time and following a tip-off (thanks Gareth), however, we are greeted by a guard dog which makes its presence know before slinking off. It has also alertrd the owners who, having seen me wandering about shouted that we have to stay on the footpath, not go where we liked , and pointing to the stile at the top of the field. The footpath is not marked and not obvious. In their defence it is their land and they have probably had to deal with abuse, belligerence, and lame excuses all year by staycationers. Luckily the footpath does lie where Frog Orchids grow Even more so now, I am convinced that there are two distinct sub-species of these, with early flowerers in May to June and late flowerers July to August. This one could have done with a bit more colour!