Llanymynech Rocks, 5th September 2013

This is probably the year's last outing and after fruitless visits here before - like two weeks ago - I really want to find the Autumn Lady's Tresses that grow here, mainly because the path up is a steep tramway incline that seems to go on forever! And we have also been up above the cliffs on the edge of the golf course without success. There have been comments suggesting that 2011 was a good year for them. We try the English quarry again first without a sighting. But there they are in the Welsh quarry; not many of them but it is a sighting. We notice that many have the flowers all pointing in one direction and are not too visible seen from behind. Perhaps this is why we have missed them on previous visits. We have just approached from the wrong angle.

Back to English Quarry ... I reckon it must have been a great year for the Common Spotted Orchids from the number of fruiting heads there; literally hundreds. Also I notice what was most likely a nice clump of Marsh Fragrant Orchids. Again they are in fruit, and must be worth a future visit.

Great Orme, 2nd September 2013

A return visit this year to the rock, this time with good information as to where Autumn Lady's Tresses grow. I have had more failures looking for this orchid than any other, so am praying this time luck is o my side. And yes, they are where expected. Not the easiest to spot, even when you know what you are looking for. You can see one on a slope, close in to photograph it and realise that there are three or four more close by. The do not seem to grow in clumps, seemingly to prefer about 12cm or more between plants. I doubt we would have found them if they had not been in flower, as it was the diminuitive flowers that catch the eye.
I had expected them to be growing on grazed grassland, but these were on quite a slope where the grasses grew short without being nibbled. This probably helps this little colony to keep going. We only scanned the areas above the path where the ALTs were more or less at eye-level to find them. There could have been many more on higher slopes, but scrambling to to look would have been difficult. The slope was about 1:2 and grasses bone dry; a recipe for sliding back down to the bottom.
We did look at other likely places on the way to the summit, and along Marine Drive, without any more sightings.

      
The third plant pictured has a rather pale stem

While we were there we drove round to the Dark Red Helleborine site. We could only find one flower spike setting seed along the roadside, but those on the rock face above could bee seen to have plenty of seed pods. Had someone `harvested' those by the road, or had the flowers been picked, or had they just not set seed and whithered?