www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Nothing to do with butterflies, but I wondered if anyone could shed any light on this plant I found today while looking for chanterelles in woodland at about 1400m or so:





As you can see, apart from brown discolouration, the entire plant is pure white, leaves and all. Since it has leaves, I presume it is not supposed to be pure white and would therefore be an albino. Can anyone identify it? It looked to me like some species of orchid but I'm having difficulty nailing it down.

Thanks,

Guy

Remarkable. No idea about the ID but, it appears like a ghost of some Orchids I've seen up on the nearby Limestone Hills in Gloucestershire...see here :~

http://www.hoganphoto.com/lillyleaf_twayblade.jpg

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/183366

Could it be a casual introduction of a garden or ornamental plant?

Be very interested to know what it is.

Good grief, a further search revealed this plant ~ picture taken on the same hillside I've seen them ...Can see it from my bedroom window ~ just three miles from my house.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/435688
.

hi guy,

it appears to be one of the helleborine clan, maybe broad-leaved going by stem and leaf arangement, not sure what your local species would be, as you would no doubt have a greater range where you are, but seems to have been infected with a virus in its early development producing a plant with complete lack of green chlorophyll in its tissue.
viruses also being the main determining factor in leaf varigation in cultivated variatys of plants.

would be interesting to see how the flowers develop at a later date.

gary

It's not a variety of toothwort is it?

Bill

PS - Found my first ever Chanterelles last weekend, not many but enough for a taster.

Thanks CC. I did think of some kind of helleborine but it didn't seem to match in the details.

It was certainly a striking plant and there was nothing similar around it, though I have found other helleborine species in that wood and elsewhere.

I only found a handful of chanterelles, but wow! They taste sublime fresh from the woods compared with the tough, lanky ones they sell in the market.

Guy

EDIT - the other posts crossed. Thanks geniculata and Bill. I'll keep my eyes peeled for other helleborines, whether albino or not, for comparison.

....interesting - plants such as Broomrape are parasitic and therefore do not need chlorophyll...these tend to be yellowish/white or pink in colour. But they also tend to grow in complete shade in the under-brush...so unlikely...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broomrape
N

padfield wrote:
I only found a handful of chanterelles, but wow! They taste sublime fresh from the woods compared with the tough, lanky ones they sell in the market.

Guy

Count yourself lucky that the market has supplies of wild(?) mushrooms, I have to find all my supplies.

Not too difficult though I had some pretty big hauls last year,

Bill

I'm not sure where they come from, but chanterelles are available from June in grocery shops here. They are tough and grey compared with the delicious yellow treats that push up under the moss in the woods but I occasionally buy them anyway. They never have maggots, unlike the ceps you can buy by the roadside (or even the ones you pick in the woods, normally!).

In about a month the local woods will abound with Sarcodon imbricatum - what the locals call 'éperviers'. I've no idea what the English is. The Swiss pickle this mushroom (and I've done that in the past) but I prefer to use it as a really powerful mushroom flavouring straight into casseroles. Then come the ceps and the saffron milk caps and the hedgehogs... I can't wait! A few years ago I was proud to have eaten over 40 species of wild mushroom in a season. Now I'm getting picky and I only eat the best!

Guy

padfield wrote:I'm not sure where they come from, but chanterelles are available from June in grocery shops here. They are tough and grey compared with the delicious yellow treats that push up under the moss in the woods but I occasionally buy them anyway. They never have maggots, unlike the ceps you can buy by the roadside (or even the ones you pick in the woods, normally!).

In about a month the local woods will abound with Sarcodon imbricatum - what the locals call 'éperviers'. I've no idea what the English is. The Swiss pickle this mushroom (and I've done that in the past) but I prefer to use it as a really powerful mushroom flavouring straight into casseroles. Then come the ceps and the saffron milk caps and the hedgehogs... I can't wait! A few years ago I was proud to have eaten over 40 species of wild mushroom in a season. Now I'm getting picky and I only eat the best!

Guy

Excellent. As you say Ceps are often maggoty I've found Bay Boletes to be more plentiful and have less maggots. But Wood Hedgehog is still my favourite I think.

Bill

It could be a Birds-nest Orchid. http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/scottis ... orchid.htm

Butterfly Gardener wrote:It could be a Birds-nest Orchid. http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/scottis ... orchid.htm

Interesting plant that ~ one of the ones that came to mind when I first saw the white example :~

description wrote:The only time you are likely to see a Bird's-nest Orchid is in early summer when it puts up its pale yellow-brown flowering stem.

Flowering stem ....Leaves are clearly present in the Op's posting ~ snow white too ~ with smaller leaves interspersed within the flower spike ~ not present in the Bird's-nest orchid..

Thanks again, all.

I'm currently thinking of something like Epipactis viridiflora, here pictured under its synonym, E. purpurata:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... 130805.jpg

I also considered E. helleborine (broad-leaved helleborine). To be certain, I should really go back up there and look at the flowers once they are out, but it is a very long walk uphill from my house and it is probably over by now anyway.

Guy

Hi Guy,
I'm no botanist but my gut feel is that it's Broad-leaved Helleborine lacking chlorophyll. The lack of chlorophyll in Violet Helleborine results in a quite spectacular and vivid deep lilac colouration. I've seen photographs of this form, taken in one of my local woods.
Neil