Violet Helleborine - Epipactis purpurata

A short to medium plant with hairy upper stems, the lower part of the stem is often purplish. It is quite a leafy plant and the leaves are spirally arranged, greyish or purplish in colour and elliptical to lanceolate in shape. Flowers form a half nodding raceme and are whitish, the sepals greenish or purplish on the outside, the petals sometimes tinged with pink.

Broad-leaved Helleborine

Photographs of the whole plant and details of flowers.  It is on the VC55 Rare Plant Register, known from several sites, but known populations are small although possibly increasing.   A specimen should not be taken. Take detailed field photos and submit to NatureSpot as soon as possible; and if you think you have found it in a new location, inform the County Recorder as soon you can. (RPR)

Deciduous woodland.

In flower during August and September.

Perennial.

Occasional. Found in Britain north to Cumbria, but most frequent in the south.

Uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland.

In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 4 of the 617 tetrads, and in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in  2 tetrads.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce (i.e. present in 4-10 sites)