Man Alive - 25th May 2026

Its been a very long time since I have set eyes on a Man Orchid, so after viewing the Burnt Orchids at Knocking Hoe (see my previous post) Peter suggested we drive another fifty miles northeast to Swaddywell Pit Nature Reserve near Helpston in Cambridgeshire which he had visited before  I was in a quandary. It was now desperately hot and I knew it would be another tiring drive and another exhausting walk i nthe heat to the Man Orchids although this time on level ground. Did I really want to subject myself to this? The answer was, surprisingly, yes. Emboldened by the comfort of the air conditioning I was currently enjoying sat in the car I decided not without trepidation that we should go for it.The incentive would be to see Man Orchids  although Peter informed me he had no specific information as to whether they were still there.

Man Orchids are described as local and like many orchids have suffered from loss of suitable habitat although they have been re-discovered in other southern and eastern areas of England away from their traditional strongholds which are centred on Kent and Surrey.The flower spike can contain up to 90 flowers although the ones we saw were smaller, although impressive, and had less flowers but still enough to enthuse over and joke about alien little green men.The colour of each individual flower can range from pale yellowish green to rich reddish brown.The sepals and upper petals form a tight hood or head with the edges of the sepals a darker red brown.The lip is the shape of a tiny human figure hence the name Man Orchid, with the two narrow side lobes suggesting the arms and the long forked central lobe forming the legs.

The little green men!

Swaddywell Pit has an intriguing history dating back to mediaeaval times when it was a quarry supplying stone for constructing local churches and the great cathedrals at Ely and Peterborough.More recently it has had a chequered history being one of England's first ever nature reserves in the early 20th Century then in turn a quarry again, a bomb dump, a landfill and even a race track for Volksvagen cars in 1997. In 2003 the pit became Langdyke Countryside Trust's  first nature reserve and now hosts a wide variety of flora and fauna, some scarce and endangered such as the Man Orchids and a  population of Great Crested Newts.

The reserve car park is discreetly tucked away behind a hedge bordering the road and is easily missed as we found out. Back tracking on the quiet road we parked in front of a gate which you open and gives access to a small car park which today contained just one other car.

We then followed an obvious track for some way in even hotter conditions than we had endured at Knocking Hoe. Descending a shallow slope we began looking for the orchids but there was no sign of them so we walked further to an uncertain hedgeline that marked the border of the reserve and carried on until we came across presumably the owner of the other car who was photographing the orchids protected in wire cages, by the hedge.

We were relieved and delighted in equal measure to find they were still present on the reserve and that they were just about at their very best.

So having located them  the next question was how to get a photo? The ones in the wire cages were obviously not suitable but there were others on the other side of a wire fence growing on a light scrubby dry bank and these gave a better opportunity for photos. The ground here was very poor, baked to the consistency of concrete, cracked and parched.

The spot we were in was undoubtedly the prime area for the orchids, localised but with a good number of orchids poking their yellowish green spikes above the vegetation. 

I walked further along the hedge looking for other specimens and as often happens, once you get your eye in I found others growing half hidden in the shade or surrounding vegetation but one in particular stood proud and solitary and thus eminently photographable so we concentrated our attention on this.

We whiled away a contented hour here, the sun still searingly hot but it did not seem to matter. We counted 44 spikes of Man Orchids which was excellent. Our fellow orchid enthusiast had already departed and as we too turned to leave  and walk back to the car park, a Nightingale sang briefly and then flew along past some bushes.

My first of the year and it could not have happened in a better place.