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5 Aug 2019

Creeping Ladies Tresses

On my recent trip to Kenfig with Sean to see a number of orchid species (see HERE) the conversation
turned to Creeping Ladies Tresses. This species is confined to Caledonian forest apart from a few sites in northern England and other colonies, bizarrely, in Norfolk.

One of the sites is Whinfell Forest, Cumbria, in the Centre Parcs holiday resort. My ears pricked up at this as we were actually going there for a long weekend with my son, daughter in-law and youngest granddaughter........

This is a big site and my first port of call was the rangers office to see if I could glean any  information. Unfortunately they couldn't help as apparently none had been found flowering yet. Thus was a bit odd as it should have been peak flowering season for them. Undeterred I planned an early morning walk around suitable habitat but actually almost tripped over a colony whilst walking back to our lodge.





The flowers grow spirally around the stem but then twist so they mostly face the same direction. Another new species of UK orchid for my fledgling list.

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