Common Broomrape or Orobanche minor

Part 2 ( see my previous post for part 1)

At the other end of our garden is a small wild patch  where I try to encourage native plants and control strong growing grasses. Teasels are growing well there and whilst trying to help by removing some grasses at the base of a teasel plant I unfortunately found myself holding the flowering stem of a broomrape which I believe is the common species. Trying to identify it I cut in half one of the flowers and found the two purple stigmas joined on a single style and with 4 stamen which I think show up quite well in the photos. So I am fairly confident with the identification and will look to see if other specimens have survived my "weeding" ! These plants can be seen out in the fields nearby if the management allows! There is an obvious message in this post and the previous about the conflict between humans and plant life

Pyramidal Orchid and Common Broomrape OR Anacamptis pyramidalis and Orobanche minor

This is a tale about these two plants which have appeared in our garden this year. The orchid appeared last year also but not in the same spot in our front lawn. At times it's not so much a lawn as a nursery for plants that happen to choose to appear!
Earlier this year I cut the grass probably in March or April and kept my eyes open for anything that looked like an interesting plant. Then it was left to grow on until I gave it another cut and this time suddenly spotted a Pyramidal orchid plant just inches in front of the mower! I went round it and left a small path of grass and the orchid to grow on. A bit later as the orchid plant began to send up a flower spike I took a photo and took another just now. The first was on 28th May when the plant was about 19 cm high. You can see that the tips of the leaf has been clipped which I believe was made during the first mowing

The next two were taken today 24th June and the flower is nearly fully open and has grown to 32 cm.
The photos of the Broomrape I'll put in another post!