Aston Clinton Ragpits

[David Nicholson]

Thanks, but I'd prefer a rifle

[Eric Locke]

It is wonderfull that these "man made" sites produce such great sites for our native wildlife and the one that always comes to mind are the dissused railways.

I did forget to include a photo of the common twayblade - so here it is . ,although rather hidden in the surrounding grass.

Also , from a nearby site,  is a photo of the very small and hard to find Musk orchid.
This orchid is only known in two sites in Buckinghamshire, but as it"s so small and un -spectacular, I guess many sites are yet to be found.

Eric

[Joakim B]

Eric thanks for the pics I love to see orchids in the wild and You seemed to have a great day.
Also nice to get the meaning of Ragpits.
I can say that there does not seem to be any obvious modern use in the Swedish language of things like rögg. Rök means smoke and there have been some changes between Danish and Swedish regarding g and k but that word does not seem to fit well in these sentences. Maybe there is some in the other Nordic languages?
Thanks for a great time
Joakim

[Eric Locke]

Glad you enjoyed these Joakim.
This small reserve is a real treasure that is visited by so few ,which is great for the orchids and the rest of the wildlife here. 

Eric

[Kristl Walek]

Eric,
Thank you for sharing your trip and the treasures growing there.

Kristl

[Gerdk]

I did forget to include a photo of the common twayblade - so here it is . ,although rather hidden in the surrounding grass.

It seems there is a similarity between the English ' twayblade ' and the German naming  ' Zweiblatt ' (= two leaves) for this plant - always something new to note!

Gerd

[Eric Locke]

Gerd.

This species of Twayblade (Listera Ovata) would be the same as you have in Germany, as the overall geographical area of this species is very large. This species covers almost the entire temperate zone of Eurasia.
It grows in thousands in this reserve and as far as I am aware is not even counted.

Eric

[Joakim B]

Eric and Gerd the English name sounds very "Nordic or maybe Norse" and in Swedish it is "tvåblad" meaning "two leaves". The pronunciation is not that far from the English (or vice verse) .
Eric I agree that it is good for orchids not to have two many visitors but if too few the place can become "developed" since it is not used "anyway". Folks might not care that much either if thy during there 40 years living there never visited so there is a balance not always easy to maintain. I hope this "development" will never happen to this ragpit but just wanted to point out a danger with too anonymous places.

Thanks again
Joakim

[Eric Locke]

Joakim ,this 3ha (7.5 acres) reserve is either owned or managed (not sure which   ) by the local Wildlife trust .
It has a volunteer warden who keeps a watch on the site.
It is grazed from Autumn to Early Spring and work parties help to remove scrub to keep it from being overgrown and also other management tasks.
So hopefully this wonderfull place is safe for many years to come.

Eric

Eric and Gerd the English name sounds very "Nordic or maybe Norse" and in Swedish it is "tvåblad" meaning "two leaves". The pronunciation is not that far from the English (or vice verse) .
Eric I agree that it is good for orchids not to have two many visitors but if too few the place can become "developed" since it is not used "anyway". Folks might not care that much either if thy during there 40 years living there never visited so there is a balance not always easy to maintain. I hope this "development" will never happen to this ragpit but just wanted to point out a danger with too anonymous places.

Thanks again
Joakim

[Ragged Robin]

Eric, what a place with such beautiful orchids growing freely - it is amazing too how they can reappear after years once places are left to the wild - thanks for showing such a magical spot.

[cohan]

nice spot, good to know its being maintained
 i wonder if 'rag' could have some original relation to 'rock'? which is surely not too far from rugged etc...

hmm--dictionary.com turned up this under rag:

verb (used with object), ragged, rag⋅ging. to break up (lumps of ore) for sorting.


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Origin:
1870–75; orig. uncert.