
Cleeve Common SSSI is a beautiful orchid hunting spot. This year the Musk orchid has put on an extraordinary show. Most years it is possible to find maybe 30, 50 maybe 100 plants in a good year. This year there are thousands of them, it is a very pleasing sight, the whole hillside is covered in them. They are tiny, delicate, beautiful flowers. I have seen them before at Noar Hill, where I found around 20 plants. At Cleeve they are growing with Pyramidal, Bee and Frog.

So why are they having a bumper year? Do they like a lot of rain, even though they grow on very free-draining slopes? Do they benefit from a mild winter? Have they been there but not flowering for many years or are these young plants, 5-6 years on from a particularly good year for seed setting? I don’t have any answers but I also saw at least 2 dozen Frogs, which is more than I’ve found in one place before, so the management at Cleeve is working a treat.
