Saturday 18 January 2020




 Walking alongside a stretch of woodland in Hertfordshire my eye was drawn to an almost luminous green among the deep browns of the leaf litter. This fine stand of Stinking Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus) was coming into flower.
 Woods and scrub on calcerous soil are the characteristic habitat of H. foetidus (as is the case here) though I don't recall seeing any in this particular locale before.