Saturday 30th May
Four species in flower today, indicating how the season is now moving along nicely.
A beautiful pair of Common Twayblades (Neottia ovata).
A much overlooked orchid.
'It is extremely long-lived, often showing the remain of numerous flower spikes on a single rhizome. Some records from Scandinavia suggest that plants can persist for up to 40 years.' (Hardy Orchid Society)
Neottia ovata in bud
Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) in bud. This small population which I first recorded here in 2023 will flower in around a week.
Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula). Most specimens are over now, but the late flowerers remain.
Fly Orchids (Ophrys insectifera). My main objective today was to check over this population I found last year. By far the largest on the complex, with 280 spikes recorded in 2025. This year there may be even more! A full count today was beyond me unfortunately.
These beauties can be difficult to spot, but there are so many stems here they're truly difficult to miss, as these photos show.
And to finish the day, an early flowering Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii).
Sunday 31st May
Today a friend and I put out the cages for the special Helleborines. A number of small wire cages were made by my late friends Alan Gendle and Bryan Yorke to protect a small number of notable specimens from predators, especially the deer and hare.
With the full permission of Cumbria Wildlife Trust, I have continued to use them.
The Helleborines are coming along nicely.
A returning favourite, a plant which Bryan nicknamed 'Stripey' for obvious reasons, great to see this Broad-leaved (Epipactis Helleborine) back this year.
Dactylorhiza maculata (Heath Spotted Orchid)
Friday 12th June
Four species seen in flower today. A windy day where the going was difficult. My main aim was to do a count of the Bee Orchids (Ophrys apifera). These nationally fairly common orchids are nevertheless beautiful to see here in their sole small population each year. They appear so exotic for the UK.
Self pollinating as their target bee is not present in this country. As the climate warms they seem by reports to be spreading northwards.
A shame my old friend Bryan Yorke didn't know about them being here, I know he'd have loved to see them each year as I do.
The count this year is 15 flowering plants, and two non flowering.
A pair of Dark-red Helleborines (Epipactis atrorubens) a few days away from flowering.
The only Fly Orchid (Ophrys insectifera) from a small population this year.
A Northern Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella). I was pleased to find and record these Orchids on the complex for the first time last year.
The hybrid between Northern Marsh and Common Spotted Orchid, Dactylorhiza x venusta. Again, I recorded these here for the first time last year. Dactylorhizas hybridize very easily. Where both parent species are present, the hybrid is extremely likely.
Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) present at this location in their hundreds.
A lighter coloured CSO
Saturday 20th June
The first Dark-red Helleborines (DRH's) into flower today. Forecast dry hot weather for the next few days will doubtless hasten along more.
40b. DRH. One of numerous specimens named or numbered by Bryan. In many years this plant is among the first to flower, as it is this. The lowest flower beginning to bloom.
An E. atrorubens var. bicolour, the red and yellow petals/sepals can be seen.
A beauty.
Epipactis atrorubens is a limestone specialist plant, and Hutton Roof is undoubtedly one of the best places to see them in the country. Every year visitors from across the country come to see them here.
The plant is found scattered across and around the 32 limestone pavements on Hutton Roof Crag, and numbers into the low thousands.
On Farleton it is rare, with only a relatively small number of records, which over the course of several days a friend and I were pleased to revisit and update o.b.o Natural England.
Another plant beginning to bloom, I found this 'early flowerer' DRH a couple of years ago. Poor picture! Here are a few close ups...
The frilly pink bosses on the labellum (lip) act as a landing pad for pollinators. The yellow anther cap and white viscidium (glue blob) underneath. The viscidium attaches the pollinia to visiting pollinators, to be then transferred to another flower. The pollinator is attracted to the nectar held in the hypochile (cup) seen under the viscidium in the picture.
Also visible is the hairy stem, which has a 'frosted' appearance.
This Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) has been with us for the last few years. A very unusual find on Hutton Roof due to the calcareous soil across most of the area. There are however some areas of acidic soil where this orchid is usually found.
And the more common sight around here, a Common Spotted Orchid (CSO).
A laden DRH
Flower just opening on DRH on the left.
Monday 22nd June
Another check round the CSO's, NMO's and the CSO x NMO hybrid (Dactylorhiza x venusta).
CSO's probably in the low thousands in this cracking area.
A white CSO, var alba.
NMO
NMO
The hybrid
A hybrid between a CSO and NMO (Dactylorhiza x venusta).
Wednesday 24th June
Extreme hot temperatures now being experienced across the country. Today broke the long standing 1976 record for the hottest June day. Fortunately showers are forecast over the next few days.
A sunset visit being the most practical one today.
Most of the DRH's are still to flower, but the early ones are on the go.
40b now well along
40b
P4
The DRH's here show great variation (as my pictures will show).
This pale yellow flowering specimen, which Bryan came to use the term 'pallens' describe them (Epipactis atrorubens var. pallens).
Research has revealed these yellow flowering plants were first named as lutescens in the nineteenth century, but until very recently have not been correctly classified.
So I am now happy to refer to them as Epipactis atrorubens var. lutescens (or lutescens for short).
P4
All the lutescens have some form or red influence on their petals and sepals, here the light red spotting is visible.
A beautiful sunset looking over towards the Lakes.
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'over the moon'
Not a tempting area to walk over
Sunday 28th June onwards
Plenty of atrorubens now in flower.
Some of the following photographs as the orchid season gets really going here are mine and some are the work of a friend.
For the last few years I have checked and updated a number of individual plants which my late friend Bryan Yorke had kept records on for several years. He gave these 'specials' specific numbers (and in some cases names) which I came to know well. I have updated these on the pages of this blog every year since 2022.
For various reasons, this year I have concentrated on doing a count of the Helleborines instead.
It seems to be a good year for them here, and the atrorubens in particular seem to be present in good numbers.
They often have 'rest' years when they do not appear, or do not reach inflorescence.
Bryan referred to an area of the crag as his 'study area', and it's certainly the best area for the Helleborines across Hutton Roof and Farleton.
This one pavement has an excellent concentration of Helleborines, so carrying out a full count of flowering plants on this pavement this year was my aim.
As well as providing the data for Cumbria Wildlife Trust and The BSBI, practically for me it meant less moving 'too and fro' for particular specimens.
I hoped I'd also find some new favourites.
Bryan also managed a count in a few years, and I have his data, so having a form of comparison would be useful.
With a little help, I counted the number of flowering plants of both taxa during their respective flowering period in June & July.
Timing was crucial to avoid (predominantly) deer predation.
To include the non-flowering (vegetative) plants was simply beyond anything I could achieve, and would require a whole team effort over a longer time frame.
As both taxa are rhizomatous, and a single plant can produce multiple flowering stems, an obvious tight cluster of stems was counted as one plant.
The rare hybrid between the DRH and Broad-leaved Helleborine (Epipactis x schmalhausenii) becomes fairly easy to spot (see the page on the hybrid) . I did not include these F1 plants in the count.
I hope you enjoy these pictures of just a selection of the fantastic plants to be found here.
The Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) now in full flower. Aptly described by a friend as having 'blousey' flowers.
HSO
HSO
This year the majority of the atrorubens in the main recording area are in flower on Wed 1st July.
In previous years I noted this day as:
25th June in 2025
5th July in 2024
28th June in 2023
8th July in 2022
An example of the excellent images taken by Stephen Davis this year on Hutton Roof. A striking image using the white background.
Unhappy with the nearby Orchid count. Who could blame her?!
Standing proud within the Wood Sage
And it later became time for the Epipactis Helleborines (Broad-leaved Helliborines) to flower. Those without full canopy cover are usually in flower by mid July, and the plants under the canopy towards the end of the month.
Just the one Epipactis phyllanthes specimen this year, which did not flower.
They are special plants which only grow in one place on the crag (we're aware of). Bryan consulted with experts and reached the conclusion they are Epipactis phyllanthes var. vectenis (see the phyllanthes section for more detailed information).
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Bryan carried out counts of one pavement area for a handful of years. I have his maps and data and am aware his count was limited to some main areas of the pavement, or 'Helleborine hotspots'. He simply didn't have the time during the brief flowering window to do the whole pavement and check on all the individual plants he so loved.
His best year for DRH's was 2017, when he counted 650, and estimated there would likely be in excess of 800 flowering plants across the whole pavement.
In 2021 he counted 223 BLH's, his highest total.
By concentrating on the count this year, and with a little assistance, I was able to cover the whole pavement area.
The count for the DRH was carried out from June 28th to July 4th.
The total number of flowering plants on the one pavement area was 1063.
The count for the BLH was carried out between July 18th and 30th . The total number of flowering plants on the one pavement was 284.
The full results have been passed onto Cumbria Wildlife Trust.
The pavement area for the count is just one of 32 pavements across Hutton Roof Crags, and 55 in total across the whole complex. Although I know of no others which have so many Helleborines, they're found across and around them all.
Some years ago Bryan counted 2000 individual DRH's across half the pavements on Hutton Roof Crags (it took him a few years to do this).
With this data and my own knowledge of the area, the actual total across the whole complex will surely be at least three to four thousand.
A full count across the whole crag during the brief flowering time would take a large team working very long days across a huge area with some difficult terrain, so is unrealistic.
I'm happy to have achieved my target this year, and to get over a thousand flowering DRH's was very pleasing.
They may be red listed and nationally rare, but in this spot they're thankfully frequent.
I have run this blog for five years, and I have enjoyed revisiting some of the cracking specimens I knew from trips with Bryan, and making some very pleasing new discoveries, to bring the total number of recorded orchid species found here to eleven, and two known hybrids. And I am certain there are more to found.
What a wonderful place this is.
Martin
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