Lady Orchid Orchis Purpurea at Bonsai Bank May 20th 2017. One of several hundred flowering plants on this incredible site in a woodland clearing in South East Kent. This gallery gives a flavour of the site.
The Lady Orchid is one of the most showy of the typical orchids of England. Apart from a few plants along the Thames, it is now confined to Kent, where it is locally abundant. Lives predominantly in woodland clearings it can grow to 1/2 metre tall! It flowers from May to early June and can be distinguished from other orchids because of the dark hoods on each browny pink flower. The only other orchid that bears a passing resemblance is the much smaller Burnt Tip Orchid, which grows in very different habitat, generally chalk down land,