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Saturday, 6 August 2011

What’s this then?

Loads of this stuff around the knipetowers parkland, mainly near the moat and some on the south-facing banks of the Ah ha! I wonder what it is…. Here it is in the dog’s play quarry.

is it an orchid or what?

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12 comments:

Alan Sloman said...

You'll be needing a country type to come by your blog to answer this one, Mr Knipe.

Looks like a weed to me. If it was in my garden I would be digging the fella up.

Or mowing it probably. Much easier to mow the things than digging them up. It's better for your back, see, look you?

6 August 2011 at 23:56
Mike Knipe said...

Alan - Some of the gardeners wanted to put it on the compost, but I said "no!"
At the moment we're trying to make beer out of it.
I like to think of it as a kind of Ray Mears moment...

6 August 2011 at 23:59
Peter Crawford said...

It could be a kind of plant that might contain a mind-altering drug of some sort.

Alert the local youth immediately. So they can give it a wide berth.

7 August 2011 at 00:51
Oldmortality said...

Well, I'll start the bidding with "some kind of helleborine". Would that be an old limestone quarry ?

7 August 2011 at 11:02
Louise said...

Oooo, I love a mystery! What about this? Scroll right, all the way. Looks a bit similar?http://www.british-wild-flowers.co.uk/H-Flowers/Helleborine,%20Dark%20Red.htm

7 August 2011 at 11:56
Mike Knipe said...

Hmm..... a mind-altering helleborine..?
This is all possible. That's a disused magnesian limestone quarry of the very kind that gets SSSI.
Looks like Louise has it.

7 August 2011 at 16:04
Louise said...

Yes!!
Not that I'm at all competitive... ahem.

7 August 2011 at 17:45
Mike Knipe said...

Its the County flower of Banffshire, apparently.

7 August 2011 at 19:23
PhilW said...

Mr Knipe. "Ah ha"? Would that be ha ha that you are thinking about? Me thinks you are trying to make us think that Knipe Towers is grander than it really is.

7 August 2011 at 21:52
Mike Knipe said...

Sorry about the delay in replying, Phil, I was cycling back from the West wing where we keep the captured ramblers. It takes a while, as its uphill. Apparently one of the wolves had eaten one of them.
You're probably right. Ah ha is a pop group isn't it? Silly me. Its the blog sub-editorial team. Theyre just not up to it any more.

7 August 2011 at 22:05
icklebigsis said...

It does look like the Helleborine, which is an endangered species. Its an orchid

9 August 2011 at 21:42
Mike Knipe said...

Its a dark red helleborine. There's 1000 spikes of it in Bishop Middleham quarry.
If they let the vegetation grow, it'll reduce in numbers in the quarry. The question is, do they allow nature to take it's course or not?

9 August 2011 at 22:39

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