Ivy Broomrape (Orobanche hederae) in flower. There must be a couple of hundred around the grounds of the music school -which is surprising.

 In the 1980s it was considered to be one of Hertfordshire's rarest wildflowers with only one known colony in a churchyard in North Herts. Moreover this was said to be the only site in the eastern part of England north of the Thames. (Ref. Brian Sawford's great book of 1990 'Wildflower Habitats of Hertfordshire')

 I wrote a longer entry on this subject last year [10th. June], suffice to say the Broomrapes at Benslow are an intriguing manifestation of a rare species.