- Cephalanthera rubra
-
Red Helleborine 
Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Monocots Order: Asparagales Family: Orchidaceae Subfamily: Epidendroideae Genus: Cephalanthera Species: C. rubra Binomial name Cephalanthera rubra
(L.) Rich. 1817Red Helleborine (Cephalanthera rubra) is an orchid found in Europe, north Africa and parts of Asia. Although reasonably common in parts of its range, this helleborine has always been one of the rarest orchids in Britain.
Distribution and habitat
The Red Helleborine is found throughout most of Europe, east to the Urals and as far as 60 degrees north. It is however rare in Britain, the Low Countries and western France. It also occurs in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and in various parts of southern Asia as far east as Iran.[1]
Red Helleborine is a very rare plant in Britain. It is found only at the following sites:
- Workman's Wood, Sheepscombe, Gloucestershire[2][3][4]
- Waterfront Business Park, Fleet, Hampshire,
- Hawkley Warren, Hampshire,[2] where it was first found in 1986.[5]
- Windsor Hill SSSI, a woodland just to the east of Princes Risborough in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire[2][6]
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the species was recorded from single sites in Somerset, Sussex and Kent, and a second Hampshire site (in the upper Test Valley). The species was also recorded at additional Gloucestershire sites (including Stanley Wood, King's Stanley, now a Woodland Trust woodland), and persisted at some of these into the 1970s.
Notes
- ^ Harrap, Anne and Simon (2005). Orchids of Britain and Ireland: a Field and Site Guide. A&C Black. pp. 134–40. ISBN 071366956X.
- ^ a b c Species distribution map for Cephalanthera rubra, NBN Gateway, retrieved 25 February 2010
- ^ Kitchen, Clare, Mark A. R. Kitchen and Ian Carle (2008) Stephen Bishop's New Flora of Gloucestershire Part 2: the distribution maps The Gloucestershire Naturalist No. 14 Gloucestershire Naturalists ' Society, page 232
- ^ Fisher, John (1991) A colour guide to rare wild flowers ISBN 0-09-470780-4 Constable books, London
- ^ Rose, F. and A. Brewis (1988) Short notes: Cephalanthera rubra in Hampshire Watsonia 17: 176-77
- ^ Ratcliffe, D. A. (1977) A Nature Conservation Review Volume 2. Site Accounts p. 53 ISBN 0521-21403-3
External links
- Species page from Britain's Orchids
- Species page from the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew
- Images of Red Helleborine from ARKive
- Distribution map
Western marsh orchid (1989) | Pyramidal orchid (1990) | Green-winged Orchid (1991) | Listera ovata (1992) | Military Orchid (1993) | Fen orchid (1994) | Bee Orchid (1995) | Cypripedium calceolus (1996) | Bug Orchid (1997) | Marsh Helleborine (1998) | Lizard Orchid (1999) | Red Helleborine (2000) | Autumn Ladies'-tresses (2001) | Bird's-nest Orchid (2002) | Fly Orchid (2003) | Frog Orchid (2004) | Burnt orchid (2005) | Broadleaf Helleborine (2006) | Southern Marsh Orchid (2008) | Early Purple Orchid (2009) | Cypripedium calceolus (2010) |
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