Herb-paris

Today Pete and I went for an afternoon walk round Bedford Purlieus - despite the generally mild winter many of the woodland flowers aren't yet at their best. We searched for fly orchid rosettes in an area which received a lot of management last autumn, but couldn't find any. However, on another ride, which had been similarly managed, we were delighted to find a very large number of herb-paris plants, some of which were just beginning to come into flower. 

Herb-paris is a rhizomatous, perennial herb of moist, calcareous, usually ancient, woodland, occasionally found in grikes on open limestone pavement. It flowers and fruits most freely in the open stages of the coppice cycle, but persists in deep shade, and is well adapted to such conditions in managed woodland. It has shown some decline in south-east England, but many populations are small and localised, making them difficult to find in dense, shady woodland.

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