Lesser Butterfly Orchid, Platanthera Bifolia, Cranham Common 4th June 2018. This year the plants on the down flowered early, although this was in part due to grazing and part due to the drought.
Generally this species grows to between 15 and 30cm. It can be distinguished from the closely related Greater Butterfly Orchid in two ways – its size and more accurately the ‘polina’, tiny strips in the to of the flower. In this species they are parallel, whereas with the other they are bent curving round at the top. It is scarce and declining with the greatest concentrations in the west and the north. This colony is one of the most easterly in the UK