"Miss Perspicacia Tick" wrote in message
...
Bob Hobden wrote:
"Miss Perspicacia Tick" wrote ...
I've just come back from friends on the Wirral. As we were walking
back to the station, there was a plant on the embankment that I
didn't recognise. It was between 8" and 10" in height and I don't
recall seeing any leaves. It had a thin stem and was crowned with a
spire of between 15 and 20 smallish (about ½") white flowers with
deep purple spots. The 'eye' was dark. The wife asked me was it an
orchid as the flowers were certainly orchid-like, but I don't know
of any member of the orchidae family with more than one flower to a
stem. Sorry for the poor description but can anyone identify it?


Take a look at all the photos on...
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~pniel...rs.htm#orchids
Especially the spotted orchids.

Thanks, Bob, but that link appears to be dead.

it is ok for me (using Mozilla); try this page
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~pniel...s2.htm#spotted
these are the spotted orchids which are the commonest/most familiar ones.
You get them in damp meadows, damp roadside verges, bogs and other places.
When they are common you can get many hundreds at a time; there are even
some used in gardens although I suspect they take some work to get
established.




Sarah