A few plants from North East Scotland

Hard to believe perhaps, but this is an orchid, possibly the most overlooked orchid in the UK. It's lesser twayblade. This is a full grown plant which has finished flowering, hence the need for me to hold up it's flower stem! It's not particularly rare, but it's not common either, but it is very much overlooked and it's only about the fourth time I've managed to find it. I counted about 20 altogether in this area. The only other places I've seen it are Ben Lawers and Loch Morlich woods, so this site is in good company!

Lesser twayblade.

Another unassuming plant which unfortunately has also finished  flowering, this is chickweed-wintergreen. It's really a woodland species, but like wood anemone, it's often found on moors as a relic from the past. It's mainly a Scottish species but is also found much more rarely in England.

Crowberry.

Molinia caerulea showing why it goes by the English name of purple moorgrass. It's not always this purple though, in fact I would say that it's more often green, and indeed all of the green stuff you can see around it is also purple moorgrass! The flower however is always purple.