Dark-red Helleborine, Epipactis atrorubens

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Dark-red Helleborine, Epipactis atrorubens

Dark-red Helleborine, Epipactis atrorubens at Gait Barrows.

In late June we visited Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve in Lancashire (download a leaflet about the reserve). We were too late to see flowers on the reintroduced Lady’s Slipper Orchids (Cypripedium calceolus) on the reserve, but we had timed our visit perfectly for the Dark-red Helleborine, Epipactis atrorubens. Like the Lady’s Slipper, it is a member of the family Orchidaceae, which has well over 25,000 species worldwide. There are 56 native species in the UK.

In the British Isles, the Dark-red Helleborine is restricted to parts of the north of England, the Great Orme in Wales, the central and north-west Highlands of Scotland and the west of Ireland, including The Burren. It grows in rocky, limestone places such as cliffs, scree slopes and limestone pavements like those at Gait Barrows. Its most southerly colonies in England are in Derbyshire.

The plant is listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in the category “least concern”. In the British Isles, its overall distribution is stable and the number of known sites has increased in recent years, although the orchid can grazed by deer and rabbits – we found several plants with a nipped off flower spike. Quarrying can destroy its habitat, though fortunately areas like Gait Barrows are now protected from removal of rocks to make rockeries. The Online Atlas of the British and Irish flora has a map of the current distribution in the British Isles. Further afield, Dark-red Helleborines occur from the subarctic (including Finland) in the north to the Mediterranean region and eastwards to parts of Western Siberia. They are also naturalised in the United States, in one part of Vermont.

The orchid has beautiful, blood-red flowers and these look lovely against the grey-white of limestone. We were so pleased to find our first flower, then more and more. At Gait Barrows they seem to cluster in particular areas and other bits of limestone pavement have none. The plants are often near trees, albeit stunted ones, such as Ash trees that creep through the grykes (fissures) in the limestone pavement, rather than towering overhead as forest giants.

In his superb “A Pocket Guide To The Orchids of Britain and Ireland“, which I highly recommend, Simon Harrap relates how studies in continental Europe suggest that the Dark-red Helleborine is associated with ectomycorrhizal fungi. Often the orchids may gain nutrients from the roots of nearby trees via these fungi, and isotope studies have shown that the orchid takes around 65% of its nitrogen and 15% of its carbon from fungi.

There are some excellent photos of Dark-red Helleborine on the Wildflower finder website. In the meantime, I leave you with a photograph of the Dark-red Helleborine’s habitat at Gait Barrows.

Gait Barrows

A general view of Gait Barrows.

Weasel’s-Snout, Misopates orontium

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I have written in previous posts about some of the wild flowers / weeds on our allotment such as Gallant Soldier (spreads like wildfire but is good in chicken stew), Red Deadnettle (lovely spring flowers for bees) and Tree Spinach (a useful edible and self-inflicted weed).

But one of my favourite allotment wild flowers (I hesitate to use the word “weed”) is Weasel’s-Snout, Misopates orontium.

Weasel's-Snout, Misopates orontium

Weasel’s-Snout, Misopates orontium, on the allotment.

Weasel’s-Snout is also known as Lesser Snapdragon and Calf’s Snout. It is a member of the family Plantaginaceae and is a close relative of the Snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus, which was the subject of my PhD thesis many years ago and the reason why I came to Norwich. Weasel’s-Snout’s pretty pink flowers and green hairy fruit look just like a miniature version of Antirrhinum majus.

Misopates orontium is an ancient introduction to the British Isles, and is classed as an archaeophyte – plants that were introduced here before 1500 – along with Cornflower, Corn Marigold and Common Poppy. It is a spring-germinating annual of light soils and can be found in arable and other cultivated ground. Like other cornfield annuals, however, its fortunes have declined (see map) as agriculture has intensified and autumn sown crops (such as winter wheat and oilseed rape) have become widespread. Outside the British Isles, Weasel’s-Snout can still be found in the Mediterranean region (its original home) and, as a more recently introduced plant, in North America. In warmer climates, Misopates orontium flowers as early as March but here in Norwich it appears from April and May and flowers from June until September.

I take a pretty tolerant approach to my Weasel’s-Snout. If it is growing in the middle of a row of seedlings I will remove it, but I let it grow between rows or on the edges of the plot, where it is a pleasure, not a nuisance. The seeds are easy to collect and I have passed it on to friends, including Anne and Simon Harrap at Natural Surroundings in North Norfolk, who have included the plant in their displays of cornfield annuals.

If you want to grow Misopates orontium, but aren’t lucky enough to have your own supply, you can also buy seeds from Emorsgate Seeds.

Lamb’s Ear, Stachys byzantina

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Lamb’s Ear, Stachys byzantina, is in full flower at the moment in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground in Earlham Cemetery in Norwich.

Stachys byzantina

Lamb’s Ear, Stachys byzantina, in Earlham Cemetery, Norwich.

Stachys byzantina is a spreading perennial and a member of the Deadnettle Family, the Lamiaceae. Although it is mainly grown for its foliage, thick leaves covered in dense grey or silvery-white hairs, its spikes of purplish-pink flowers are lovely too. Many bees agree with me: the flower spikes are often a-buzz with them.

The plants in Earlham Cemetery were being visited by several Buff-tailed Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), a male Fork-tailed Flower Bee (Anthophora furcata) and, most spectacularly, by a female Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum).

The Wool Carder Bee is one of our largest solitary bees. Both sexes have a distinctive row of yellow spots or bars on the abdomen.

The male is larger than the female and is fiercely territorial. He has a row of spines at the end of his abdomen, which he uses to attack other insects that fly into his territory. The female collects pollen on the underside of her abdomen in a stiff brush of rearward pointing hairs. She is an excellent pollinator of a range of garden and wild flowers and is particularly fond of Tufted Vetch, Vicia cracca. She gathers hairs from plant leaves to line her nest, which is made in dead wood, a hollow plant stem or a hollow bamboo cane. Stachys byzantina provides just the right sort of hairs.

Anthidium manicatum on Stachys byzantina

Wool Carder Bee, Anthidium manicatum, on Stachys byzantina.

Stachys byzantina‘s hairy leaves are very tactile and popular with children of all ages, as well as featuring in sensory gardens, where it grows best in full sun and light soil. It is ideally suited to a gravel garden. (Several websites suggest other grey-leaved plants for  this kind of situation: see for example “Silver Herbs: Planning A Moon Garden” by Sandra Henry and the RHS article “10 award winning silver-leaved annuals and perennials“. I tend to refer to my copy of Nicola Ferguson’s book “Right Plant, Right Place“.)

The plant is a native of Turkey, Armenia and Iran, and the grey hairy leaves help the plant cope with drought and strong sunlight: the hairs capture moisture and the grey foliage reflects the sun’s rays. The plant is very hardy too, though the leaves can die back in cold, damp winters.

English names for Stachys byzantina include Lamb’s Ear, Woolly Hedgenettle, Woolly Woundwort and Bear’s Ear, all referring to the heavily felted leaves. Older scientific names for the plant include Stachys lanata and Stachys olympica.

There are several garden cultivars, including the larger-leaved “Big Ears”, which has leaves that are less hairy. The variety “Silver Carpet” is smaller and neater and rarely flowers – to my mind it is rather boring. Removing the flower spikes will prolong the life of the plant, though I would personally prefer a few glorious years to a longer lived but less interesting garden plant. Splitting up the plant in spring will also help to keep it going.

Stachys byzantina has been cultivated in the British Isles since 1782 and it has been found in the wild here since 1858, as a garden escape, on the site of a former garden or where it has been thrown out. It sometimes persists for years on waste ground. “A Flora Of Norfolk” calls it “an occasional escape” and records it from the Norwich area in 1990.

I haven’t eaten Stachys byzantina but the “Our Permaculture Life” website says that the leaves are edible and that young leaves can be eaten in a salad. The deep-fried, battered leaves are known as “lambari” in Brazil and recipes for these can be found on the come-se website and on this You Tube video (an understanding of Portuguese would be useful).

Stachys byzantina may find uses in modern medicine too. S. byzantina and its close relatives contain a range of flavonoids and other compounds whose properties are currently being investigated. One study (Jamshidi et. al., 2011) found that Stachys byzantina extracts may have antimicrobial activity against vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Other studies revealed by a quick online search include Jassbi et. al. 2014, Sytar et. al. 2016 and Saeedi et. al. 2008. There are probably a lot more.

Both photographs are by Vanna Bartlett.