Thank you very much for these beautiful pictures. Over Essex as a whole it is very common, but often overlooked as it flowers at the end of the summer, usually August and September. It is semi-parasitic, and in a dry year it never grows very large because its host is not growing well either. Although the flowers are very much coloured, somehow it is rarely very conspicuous, another reason for being overlooked.
Your Forum
This forum has now been more or less replaced by the Club's Facebook page at 
The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more
The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more