Man Orchid: (Aceras anthropophorum) These exquisite flowers are quite anthropomorphic as beneath the hood of the flower the lip hangs down split into a pair of arms and legs. The hood is yellow-green and the lip or the stick mans body is yellow and sometimes edged in red.
Defiantly one of my favourite British orchid species, I have a soft spot for the more orchids but maybe more so for the less flashy, bright orchids and maybe there is something more to be said for the understated orchids that tend to blend in a bit more.
Either that or the fact that being a huge sci-fi geek all I see is tiny green men in space helmets.
It's particularly difficult to see man orchids up north as they have a very southerly distribution with Lincolnshire being at the very edge of their northerly rage.
This is an orchid that enjoys short alkaline grasslands and is most often found growing full sun or mid-shade, but the man orchid is also known to be found occasionally along the edges of open woodland and in scrubby areas.
Lincolnshire has two main sites where you can see man orchids and one site is a small grass verge near Ancaster, this small area falls under the Duke's Covert & Copper Hill nature reserve’s boundary and is a protected area.
This area is protected under Lincolnshire’s Protected Roadside Verge Scheme, so is safe from the councils mowers.
