Violet Helleborines in a Sussex wood today.

Finally the flowers have emerged, no doubt helped by the recent deluge of rain.  There are still deep cracks in the clay soil nearby though.

  The exposure time of these shots was long, 1.6 seconds and the flowers were moving in the wind.  So the focus is good under the circumstances.  A tripod was essential of course.

The flower spikes have a way to go to match last year's flowers, a remnant of which is the dead broken stem to the right.  Other flower spikes, below seem to have shriveled before opening.

These less thriving flowers have variegated leaves.

Violet Helleborines, Epipactis purpurata are sometimes found with no chlorophyll at all.