Feedback request: Orchis laxiflora (14015)

[David Price]

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Specimen #331991

Taxon:	Orchidaceae: Orchis laxiflora Lam. ("Loose-flowered Orchid")
Filed in taxon folder:	Orchidaceae: Orchis laxiflora Lam. ("Loose-flowered Orchid")
Collected by:	Dr Frederick Arnold Lees
Collection date:	6/1872
Locality:	Great Britain, VC66 County Durham, Hartlepool, NZ53, Ballast hills, with other Jersey[?] plants
ex herb:	Dr Frederick Arnold Lees Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society Henry Franklin Parsons
Institution:	South London Botanical Institute (SLBI)
Image:

Inferred details are marked.

Documented by dawn nelson on 29^th December 2011.

Edit history

date	user	change
16/09/2014	<system> (minor automatic edit)	Deleted provenance: exherb Henry Franklin Parsons
16/09/2014	<system> (minor automatic edit)	Added provenance: exherb Henry Franklin Parsons
17/09/2014	chrisu	Deleted locality: GB VC66 Hartlepool, Ballast hills, with otehr Jersey[?] plants
17/09/2014	chrisu	Added locality: GB VC66 Hartlepool, Ballast hills, with other Jersey[?] plants

Specimen #331992

Taxon:	Orchidaceae: Orchis laxiflora Lam. ("Loose-flowered Orchid")
Filed in taxon folder:	Orchidaceae: Orchis laxiflora Lam. ("Loose-flowered Orchid")
Collection date:	24/6/1883
Locality:	Great Britain, VC113 Channel Islands, Saint Ouen's Pond, SV55, Boggy meadows by'
ex herb:	Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society Henry Franklin Parsons
Institution:	South London Botanical Institute (SLBI)
fruits/flowers:	mature flowers

Inferred details are marked.

Documented by dawn nelson on 29^th December 2011.

Edit history

date	user	change
16/09/2014	<system> (minor automatic edit)	Deleted provenance: exherb Henry Franklin Parsons
16/09/2014	<system> (minor automatic edit)	Added provenance: exherb Henry Franklin Parsons

N.B. reporting of the edit history is currently fairly unclear and misleading. Most edits made to specimens appear as a pair of 'add' and 'delete' entries, which may not be together in the list. There are also often 'minor' edits, which are made automatically (rather than due to user activity), for example to merge synonym names.

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User comments about this sheet

wonastow wrote

Could this Hartlepool spmn really be Orchis [now Anacamptis] laxiflora? I have never seen any reference to it in print (e.g. Simpson's Index). Was ballast obtained by grubbing up the Jersey meadows?

[Roger Horton]

There is a reference to it in The Student's Flora of the British Islands by Joseph Dalton Hooker p. 389:



I guess the ballast could have come in from anywhere that received coal from Hartlepool.

[David Price]

Well, we live and learn.

In C19th Hartlepool was a substantial timber importer.

[Chris Liffen]

and

[Chris Liffen]

or there is the suggestion of import on wool shoddy
(Orchids of Britain and Ireland: A Field and Site Guide
By Anne Harrap, Simon Harrap)

[oldnick]

One often reads enviously of the plants recorded in former times on waste or arable land, or nowadays sees plants come up on development sites that are however quickly landscaped by covering in topsoil. Has anyone tried taking a plough, harrow or spade to any such well-known sites as those described in Hartlepool, where former workings may contain enough seeds to amount to a seed-bank, perhaps without such arable dominants as thistles or sow-thistles? On our local heathland, suppressing the grass cover causes excellent germination, eg where any small log has lain a few months and then been removed. Equally, removing those 'aggressive natives' eg nettle-beds from some of our eutrophicated verges?

[Roger Horton]

Perhaps you could start digging at Spion Kop!

[Chris Liffen]

Quote
This historic cemetery, formed from a combination of sand dunes and ship ballast, now supports species rich dune grassland with habitat of such quality that is unque in Hartlepool.
Indeed, unique!