In early July this year I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the first Lizard Orchid, Himantoglossum hircinum seen in Norfolk since 1956. The site is being kept secret and the plant is a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, so if I told you more I would have to shoot you.

Lizard Orchid in Norfolk, July 2015

The discovery of the orchid by Andrew Brown of Old Costessey was reported in the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) on 23rd June. He first discovered the plant two years ago, and had been waiting for it to flower. It was well worth the wait.

My friend Chris Lansdell wrote about the discovery first, on 21st June and his blog includes three good pictures of the Norfolk specimen. Penny Clarke also wrote about it on her blog, on 28th June.

The Lizard Orchids is rare in Britain (see distribution map). Good sites include the golf links at Sandwich in Kent, where the plant occurs in good numbers and, nearer to home, on Devil’s Dyke in Suffolk, near Newmarket Racecourse. The orchid prefers sunny, alkaline sites, such as chalk or limestone grassland or calcareous sand dunes.

The plant is widespread but rare and localised in parts of Southern and Central Europe and it can be seen in large numbers growing on the roadsides in the Lot Valley in France. I first saw the plant on a roadside in the Vendée in France in 1990, followed by several more on a cycling trip in southern France in 2008. The Norfolk plant is, so far, my only British specimen.

Lizard Orchids reputedly smell of goats, but I didn’t realise this at the time, so I missed my chance to verify this finding. Needless to say, the next time I encounter this handsome beast I will have a good sniff.

A French Lizard Orchid, near Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche, 2008