9.
NEW ESSEX PLANTS by Ken Adams
A number of exciting plants have turned
up in Essex over the past year. In June we
received a report from Brian Adams that a Fly
Orchid had been found less than six miles from
the centre of Chelmsford. On further investi-
gation no less than eight plants with flower
spikes and a further three non-flowering
plants were discovered. This plant (Ophrys
insectifera L.) has not been seen in Essex
since 1861 and only survives at one location
in nearby Suffolk. Having seen two people
carrying away uprooted Early Purple Orchid
plants when we returned to check on
some Oxlip hybrids following the
E.F.C. Wall Wood trip,
we are very loth to
divulge the location,
as it would seem that,
regretably, some of our
members are not as con-
servation conscious as they
they should be J
While recording in the parish of Cranham
in early June I came across a patch of damp
fallow ground in the corner of a field which
supported a virtually pure "crop" of the
Smooth Tare (Vicia tetrasperma). Dotted
around the area were about eighty tall cylin-
drical spikes of what appeared to be a very
large and beautiful broomrape with pure white
flowers (very slightly tinged with yellow at
the base) lined with delicate violet veins and
with large spreading, crenate lips. The style
was violet but the stigma was pinkish orange;
the calyx was deeply bifid into two approxi-
mately equal lanceolate segments, and the stem
was reddish purple with no trace of yellow
pigment. Most noticeable of all the plants