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Greater Butterfly-orchid

Platanthera chlorantha

A greater butterfly orchid in a meadow

How to Identify:

Annual/Perennial/BiennialPerennial
HeightUp to 60cm high
Flower typeAlong the rather loose flower spike are 10-40 greenish-white flowers with a long, narrow undivided flower lip and long spur to the rear of the flower
LeavesTwo shiny leaves at the base of the plant are 5-15cm long, with further smaller leaves higher up the stem

 

Butterfly orchid differences.

How to Spot Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

You’re most likely to find Greater Butterfly-orchid on old or recently restored hay meadows, particularly on well drained calcareous soils. You can also find them on pastures, open scrub and woodland.

They look very similar to their close cousins the Lesser Butterfly-orchid but have slightly larger flowers that are green tinged rather than pure white. You can also look for the pollen bearing structures on their petals called pollinia. These sacs of pollen are V shaped on the Greater Butterfly-orchid but parallel shaped on the Lesser Butterfly-orchid.

Where to Find Greater Butterfly-orchid

This is found across Britain particularly in the south. It’s has steadily declined across the UK over the past 100 years. The reasons are varied but in woodlands where they need dappled sunlight, they have suffered from conifer plantation planting and changes to traditional woodland management.

In grasslands, farming changes, such as too much or too little grazing, or early hay cutting before the plant has chance to flower and set seed, have had a particularly negative effect. The use of chemical fertilizers have also disrupted the delicate soil fungal network that orchids rely on for survival.

Plantlife owns and manages two reserves in Wales that are rich in Greater Butterfly-orchid – Caeau Tan y Bwlch on the Llŷn peninsula in the north, and Cae Blaen-dyffryn above Lampeter in mid Wales. The latter also contains Lesser Butterfly-orchid, so giving you a great opportunity to see the subtle differences between these two beautiful orchid species.

Carolyn Thomas MS, is currently working with us as a Species Champion to raise awareness of Greater Butterfly-orchid and its causes of decline. Find out more about Species and Nature Champions here.

Facts About Greater Butterfly-orchid

  • At night, they exude a vanilla like scent to attract pollinating moths particularly owlet moths and hawkmoths.
  • The moths’ long proboscis and eye placement are crucial for successful pollination, as they need to reach the nectar deep within the flower’s spur. Pollen is usually deposited onto their eyes.
  • This eye-attachment method of pollination has been found to be very effective, with a high percentage of flowers setting seed.
  • The vanilla flower scent can be smelt inside the mature brown seedpod.
  • If you stick a small pencil into the flower, the pollen bearing pollinia will likely stick to the pencil, and if you look closely, they will gradually rise up.
  • Greater Butterfly-orchid can establish within 3-4 years on restored hay meadows that have received green hay from another orchid-rich meadow.

Other Species

Greater Butterfly-orchid
A greater butterfly orchid in a meadow

Greater Butterfly-orchid

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort
A close up of the top of a Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort flower head, the pretty white petals stand out against a background of grasses

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

Oenanthe silaifolia

A close up of the top of a Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort flower head, the pretty white petals stand out against a background of grasses

How to Identify:

Annual/Perennial/BiennialPerennial
HeightUp to 1 metre high
Flower typeHas 4-8 smaller rounded, umbrella shaped flower clusters about 2 cm in diameter. Each tiny flower has 5 unequal petals with the outer ones slightly larger.
LeavesLeaves branched 1 to 4 times
StemsHollow stem with thin walls

 

How to Spot Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

This is not an easy plant to easily identify because it looks like a lot of other ‘umbellifers’, plants topped by a mass of frothy white flowers such as Cow Parsley, Wild Carrot and Hogweed. But there are a few clues to help you find it.

First, like the other six native species of Water-dropwort in the UK, it is found in wet places. But this species is particularly associated with floodplain meadows where its tall, hollow, grooved, thin stems can reach up higher than most surrounding wildflowers. These are topped by 4-8 roundish masses of white flowers known as umbels, each lacking modified leaves (bracts) beneath the umbel.

Below ground, it has thick spindle shaped tubers.

A close up of the top of a Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort flower head, the pretty white petals stand out against a background of grasses

Where to Find Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

As floodplain meadows have dramatically disappeared from the British countryside, so has Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort. There are only an estimated 1,100 hectares of water meadows remaining in England and Wales, less than the size of Heathrow Airport, but there are causes for optimism as society is waking up to the sustainable benefits of these special habitats. These irreplaceable meadows are incredible carbon stores and flood defences, as their deep and absorbent soils hold and slow the flow of flood water.

A heartening example is Lugg Meadow, one of the UK’s most important and historic floodplain meadows. The only known stronghold for Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort in Herefordshire, the county Wildlife Trust is currently delivering a Natural England Species Recovery project to secure the plant’s future on the meadow. Also found on stream sides, and Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort known to colonise restored wet grassland on habitat restoration schemes.

Ellie Chowns MP, is currently working with us as a Species Champion to raise awareness of Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort and its causes of decline.

Find out more about Species and Nature Champions here.

Fun Facts About Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

  • Lugg Meadow has been managed as a water meadow since at lest the time of the building of Hereford Cathedral around a 1000 years ago
  • Its nectar feeds all kinds of insects but the caterpillar of the parsnip moth is the only insect known to feed on the leaves and stem of the Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort in Britain
  • It wasn’t until 1819 that this plant was first described in print. This was done by a German botanist with the rather grand name of Friedrich Augusr Marschall von Bieberstein
  • Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort has its own official champion in Parliament, Dr Ellie Chowns MP for North Herefordshire
  • A “dropwort” is a plant with drop-shaped tubers.

Other Species

Greater Butterfly-orchid
A greater butterfly orchid in a meadow

Greater Butterfly-orchid

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort
A close up of the top of a Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort flower head, the pretty white petals stand out against a background of grasses

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

Ground Ivy

Glechoma hederacea

A photo showing the bright blue flowers of Ground Ivy against it's green leaves and blades of grass.

Ground Ivy is an aromatic creeping herb with funnel-shaped violet flowers.

This small, common evergreen perennial belongs to the mint family and spreads rapidly in a carpet-like form due to its creeping stems. Despite its name, it is not closely related to common ivy.

How to spot it

Ground Ivy has upright flowering stems bearing between two and four violet two-lipped flowers in a whorl. The lower lip has purple spots. Its leaves are scalloped in shape, which may explain why catsfoot is one of its many nicknames.

Where to spot it

It is commonly found in woodlands, meadows, hedgerows, and wasteland throughout the British Isles, although it is rarer in Scotland. It also thrives in lawns as it survives mowing.

Things you might not know

  • Known as a lung-cleansing herb, Ground Ivy has been used to treat coughs and other respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis.
  • It has been used a substitute for animal rennet to make cheese.
  • Ground Ivy is a rich source of vitamin C and can be used as a herbal tea.
  • Common names for Ground Ivy include Gill-over-the-ground, Creeping Charlie, Alehoof, Tunhoof, Field balm and Run-away Robin.
  • It was known as “Our Lady’s Vine” in Medieval times.
  • The Saxons used Ground Ivy to flavour and clarify their ale.

Lesser Butterfly-orchid

Platanthera bifolia

A close up of the unique flowers of the Lesser Butterfly Orchid - they have been likened to angels due their unusual shape.

How to Identify Lesser Butterfly-orchid

Annual/Perennial/BiennialSpring/Summer
Height15-30cm
Flower typeBifolia
Leaves2 at the bottom of the stem

 

A Lesser Butterfly Orchid is in front of the camera, with it's beautiful white and green flowers. In the background a wildflower meadow can be seen with two people crouching - one is looking closely at the flowers, while the other is taking notes.

How to Spot Lesser Butterfly-orchid?

The best time to see the Lesser Butterfly-orchid is spring into summertime with June to July being the peak flowering time.

Where to Spot Lesser Butterfly-orchid?

The Lesser Butterfly-orchid is a sweet-smelling plant, which grows across the UK. It can be found in a range of habitats, such as grasslands, meadows, bogs, woodlands, calcareous fens, and scrub, although it may be difficult to spot as it has declined in recent years.

Unfortunately, the Lesser Butterfly-orchid has been lost from much of its habitat in the UK, and is now endangered. One of the reasons for this decline is an increased use in agricultural chemicals which eradicate the soil fungi necessary for the plant to survive.

Carolyn Thomas MS, is currently working with us as a Species Champion to raise awareness of Lesser Butterfly-orchid and its causes of decline.

Find out more about Species and Nature Champions here.

A group of beautiful Lesser Butterfly Orchid flowers. The flowers are an unusual shape and white and green in colour.

Facts about Lesser Butterfly-orchid

  • Old folklore compares Lesser Butterfly-orchids to angels due to their colour, shape, sweet smell, and the way they shine in the twilight during the summer months.
  • The elephant hawk moth is the primary pollinator of the Lesser Butterfly-orchid.
  • These orchids have been used in traditional medicinal practices for gastro-intestinal soothing.

Other Species

Greater Butterfly-orchid
A greater butterfly orchid in a meadow

Greater Butterfly-orchid

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort
A close up of the top of a Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort flower head, the pretty white petals stand out against a background of grasses

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

Rock Cinquefoil

Drymocallis rupestris

Photograph taken by Nahhan

Close up image showing the delicate Rock Cinquefoil with it's five white petals and yellow centre. The flowers stands out against a blurred background with it's stem and leaves partially visible.

How to Identify Rock Cinquefoil?

FlowersWhite
SeasonSummer
MonthsMay to June
StatusEndangered
PetalsFive

 

Photograph an array of Rock Cinquefoil growing in the wild. The pretty wildflower is shown here growing in a cluster with lots of white flowers in the foreground and background.

How to Spot Rock Cinquefoil?

Rock Cinquefoil is part of the Potentilla genus, which contains more than 500 species of flowering plants in the rose family (Rosaceae). They are commonly called cinquefoil. They typically look similar to strawberry plants but differ with their fruits usually being dry and their seeds – each being technically a single fruit are actually tiny nuts.

Where to Spot Rock Cinquefoil?

It can be found in only a handful of sites across Britain, and populations are small. A species recovery project taking place in Wales at Criggion Quarry, Montgomeryshire has bolstered populations by collecting seeds and using transplants as part of their ongoing quarry restoration plan.

Native in Britain, but it is a rare native flower in the wild, it can only be found in two locations in Scotland and three in Mid-Wales, and one of the sites in Wales is thought to be an introduction.

Facts about Rock Cinquefoil

The Genus name ‘Potentilla’ comes from the Latin ‘potens’, meaning ‘powerful’ in reference to the reputed medicinal properties of the plant. It was first described by Linnaeus in 1753. The genus is said to have been used in both medicine and magic since the time of Hippocrates.

It’s species name ‘rupestris’ comes from the Latin word for rock, ‘rupes’, meaning it lives on cliffs or rocks.

Other Species

Scrambled Egg Lichen

Fulgensia fulgens

Scrambled Egg Lichen

This rare lichen is not just striking, but also a crucial part of the biological soil crust community which stabilises soils and facilitates the growth of other plants. It also hosts a globally rare fungus Lichenochora epifulgens which is even rarer than the Scrambled Egg lichen itself.

Where it grows

It grows on open short calcareous grasslands and dunes. It needs an open, well-lit, free draining substrate such as limestone, chalk or sand made from shells, with a high pH. Most often it grows over mosses or sometime directly on rock, at coastal sites in the south and west of Britain.

How to spot

As the name suggests, it really does look like a scrambled egg. It has a crust-like yellow body which is often paler in the middle with scattered orange fruits of 1.5mm.

Dave Lamacraft translocating Scrambled Egg Lichen in Norfolk

Did you know?

It is historically rare in Britain and had gone extinct in the east of England due to habitat loss as a result of changes in farming practices, an increase in tree cover and a loss of rabbits.

We are working to bring it back to the Breckland through a process known as translocation. Read how expert Dave Lamacraft translocated the Scrambled Egg Lichen, taking it 350 miles, and transplanted it using bookbinding glue!

 

Other species

Scrambled Egg Lichen
Scrambled Egg Lichen

Scrambled Egg Lichen

Oak Moss Lichen
with little tiny branches almost like a a lot of green tiny deer antlers

Oak Moss Lichen

Evernia prunastri
Fanfare of Trumpets Lichen

Fanfare of Trumpets Lichen

Ramalina fastigiata 

Aspen Bristle-moss

Nyholmiella gymnostoma

Close up of the detailed Aspen Bristle-moss growing on Aspen tree bark

As the name suggests, Aspen Bristle-moss is an Aspen Populus tremula specialist, it grows exclusively on Aspen tree bark. While you may see Aspen trees occasionally across the country, Aspen dominated woodland with a range of young and older trees is very rare. These sites provide a home for this and other rare species of epiphyte (species which grow on the surface of other plants).

Where it grows

Aspen Bristle-moss is only known to grow at three sites in the entire UK. All three sites are in and around the Cairngorms in Scotland.

Close up image of the beautiful bright green Aspen Bristle-moss growing out of grey coloured tree bark

Best Time to See it

Aspen Bristle-moss can be spotted all throughout the year. Though given that it only grows at three sites, it is a particularly tricky one to find.

Mosses and liches which grow as epiphytes are often easiest to spot in winter months as they remain green all year round, are often fresher and brighter when wet, and are not obscured by summer vegetation. 

Something You Might Not Know

This beautiful, tiny moss was believed to be extinct in the UK in 2000, but a lucky find in 2003 sparked a drive to hunt for it again. It was quickly discovered at three new sites, but no further patches have been found since.

Our new Resilience and Recovery, Helping Rare Species Adapt to a Changing World project is currently looking at this and other species of rare Aspen epiphyte. The project will investigate whether these often overlooked species are truly as rare as they seem, or just under-recorded.

Read more about our work with Aspen Bristle-moss here.

Photos taken by Gus Routledge

Other Species

Greater Butterfly-orchid
A greater butterfly orchid in a meadow

Greater Butterfly-orchid

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort
A close up of the top of a Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort flower head, the pretty white petals stand out against a background of grasses

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

One-flowered Wintergreen

Moneses uniflora

Close up of a delicate One-flowered Wintergreen flower. The five white petals stand out against the forest floor.

How to identify:

Annual/Perennial/BiennialEvergreen perennial
Height15cm
Flower typeSingle , white, 12-20mm
LeavesLight green leaves which are oval shaped
StemsGrows in rosettes with light green stem for single flower heads

 

Three One-flowered Wintergreen plants can be seen amongst the fallen leaves on the forest floor. They have not yet bloomed and the individual buds one each plant hang like white bells.

How to Spot

One-flowered Wintergreen can be a hard one to spot. As well as being very rare, it’s a small, single-flowered plant that grows on the forest floor, which can make it harder to see.

It is a distinctive plant however. Each plant has just 1 stem, and 1 flower. The flower heads are white, with 5 petals and 5 filaments with anthers, leaves at the base of the plant form in a rosette.

Where to Spot

This pretty plant is very rare. In the UK, it can only be found in pine woods in North East Scotland.

One-flowered Wintergreen only occurs at specific sites, and is often isolated to an area a few tens of metres across in a large and apparently suitable woodland.

As part of a possibly global decline, we have recorded it going locally extinct at more than half of the sites it was recorded at, since 2000.

We have been working with this plant up in the Cairngorms and have had some break throughs in understanding it better. Read more about our work with One-flowered Wintergreen here.

Did you Know?

We have been working hard to save this tiny wildflower in Scotland. In Autumn 2023 we translocated 109 individual One-flowered Wintergreen rosettes from two sites in to RSPB Abernethy, reinforcing a tiny relic population.

The translocation was a huge success, with a 70 per cent survival success rate one year on. Read the full story here.

We are currently continuing our work with the species through our Resilience and Recovery, Helping Rare Species Adapt to a Changing World project. Follow our journey here.

Other Species

Greater Butterfly-orchid
A greater butterfly orchid in a meadow

Greater Butterfly-orchid

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort
A close up of the top of a Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort flower head, the pretty white petals stand out against a background of grasses

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort

Holly

Ilex aquifolium

Fruiting Holly with dark, shiny, sharp leaves and bright red berries in clusters

How to Identify:

Annual/Perennial/BiennialEvergreen
Height15m
Flower typeWhite with 4 petals
LeavesThick, spiny and shiny
StemsGrey smooth bark with green branches

 

A Holly tree with dark shiny leaves and clusters of red berries, covered in snow in the winter cold

How to Spot

Holly can grow very tall, up to 15m. It’s an evergreen tree so stays in leaf all year round, with sharp, spiny leaves that are thick, glossy and dark green in colour. You can see it flowering between May and August with small white flowers, each with four petals. In winter it fruits with shiny red berries.

Where to Spot

Holly is a native plant that can be found all over the British Isles as well as western and central Europe. It prefers to grow in hedgerows, scrubland, woodlands and wooded pastures, and prefers acidic soils.

Holly in Folklore

Holly is a common decoration in our homes around the festive season and was in fact thought to be lucky by many cultures. It was believed that Holly could bring you luck, protection and improve your fortunes. However there is also bad luck associated with Holly. It’s believed to be bad luck if you cut down a whole Holly tree.

There’s many myths and legends associated with Holly that span across many countries, cultures and religions. One Christian-based tale suggests that the Holly once had white berries, but when Jesus was on the cross, his blood dripped onto the plants and stained the berries red forever.

Perhaps the most famous folklore is that of the Holly King and the Oak King, in which many iterations, the two are brothers. The story goes that the Oak King was the ruler of the summer months, while the Holly King was the lord of the winter.

The telling of the story varies, but it is generally believed that on the equinoxes of autumn and spring an epic battle begins. The winner is declared by the signs of the season. When spring begins to bloom, the Oak King has taken the crown. He rules throughout summer, but gets weaker after the summer solstice. By the time the autumn equinox approaches, the Holly King makes his move and the fight begins again. The changing leaves signal the Holly King has indeed won the fight and becomes lord throughout the winter, until the cycle starts again.

 

 

Other Species

Greater Butterfly-orchid
A greater butterfly orchid in a meadow

Greater Butterfly-orchid

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort
A close up of the top of a Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort flower head, the pretty white petals stand out against a background of grasses

Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort