Long purples...

Feeling much better today, thank goodness, and actually enjoyed surveying Raveley Wood in pleasantly warm sunshine. This little fen-edge wood is partly dominated by tall suckering elm while other areas have ash and field maple. The ground flora is not as rich as some woods, having much rough meadow-grass and cleavers, but in one corner there's a thriving colony of early purple-orchids Orchis mascula, which were just coming into flower - the first orchids of the year for me.

If you dug one up (which, of course, would be illegal) you would find two root tubers in which food is stored - one firm one which is filling up for next years growth and a slack one which is emptying and supplying this year's needs. These resemble testicles, which has led to this species being historically associated with desire and used as an aphrodisiac. In Hamlet, Shakespeare was aware of this association when he included 'long purples' in the garlands of the drowned Ophelia, to which the liberal shepherds gave a grosser name, possible Priest's Pintel.