Chris Ash led a walk in the Marlow Common area on the warm sunny morning of Wednesday 19 June. Starting point was Pullingshill Wood, where most of the helleborine plants in the car parking area survived a certain degree of disturbance during the preparation for the walk. The wood contains an area of practice trenches from World War I. The route led steeply down through the woods, then followed the Chiltern Way to BBOWT’s Homefield Wood reserve. Thanks to the late spring, the orchids were close to their best, with helmeted Military Orchids, numerous Twayblades, Common Spotted-orchids and Pyramidal and Fragrant Orchids just coming into flower. In the south-west corner of the clearing were a number of Fly Orchids – a few to start with, then gradually more as the eyes became attuned to picking them out from the surrounding vegetation. In the north-west corner were a few Greater Butterfly-orchids. A Small Heath butterfly was seen. The walk then continued on the track northwards through the wood towards Woodend Farm. There were more fine specimens of Fly Orchids next to the path, together with White Helleborines.
The route continued through Lower Woodend, then crossed a steep grassy valley. A Meadow Brown butterfly was seen on the way down, while there were Common Blues on the ascent up the other side. There was a pause on the climb up through species-rich grassland to key out a Broomrape flower spike – probably Common Broomrape. Other flowers here included Oxeye Daisies, Restharrow and Fairy Flax. The path then led back into the woods of Marlow Common. Sanicle was in flower beside the path. A white bracket fungus, covered with green algae and growing on a fallen beech trunk, was identified as Trametes gibbosa. The walk was followed by lunch at the Royal Oak in Bovingdon Green.
Pictures by Laurie and Jan Haseler