Here are some pictures of the very striking rosea form of Violet Helleborine Epipactis purpurata growing by the roadside under Beech trees near Princes Risborough. The plant is large and robust but completely lacking in chlorophyll giving it a strange ghostly appearance. The plant is tinted with purple but really stands out in the dark woods, almost appearing to glow. There is another ghostly plant, much smaller, on the other side of the road and two conventional plants growing nearby. Orchids are dependant on mycorrhizal symbiosis and this allows some species to grow with reduced leaves and little chlorophyll. Violet Helleborine can survive with no chlorophyll at all and these plants are usually more heavily suffused with purple, rather than violet.
It was quite breezy and the light levels very low making it a real challenge to get any reasonable shots of this amazing plant.
Violet Helleborine var.rosea
Violet Helleborine var. rosea showing no chlorophyll
A normal Violet Helleborine Epipactis purpurata taken in July 2006 in South Buckinghamshire
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