Salthill Quarry Nature Reserve, Clitheroe.

Warm sunny days are meant for finding flowers, I always think, so I recently walked up to Salthill Quarry Nature Reserve to look for Bee Orchids. And then I visited again with my sister to show her the Bee Orchids. The Reserve really is a wildflower wilderness full of butterflies fluttering by and the flora has certainly erupted into an explosion of colour. 🦋🌼🐝

The Quarry areas of the 8 Hectare site are where to find Bee Orchids and other flowers that enjoy the limestone rich soil. Once upon a time the quarry existed at the bottom of the sea and fossilized remains of crinoids ( sea lillies ) can be found in the rocks.

Here are a few photos of the plants currently flowering in the Nature Reserve.

Creeping Cinquefoil spreads low across grassland.

Common Blue Butterfly on Marjoram. Lots of these azure blue beauties flitting around.

Birds Foot Trefoil amongst Thyme. The Thyme has created a colourful carpet in parts of the reserve.

Common Spotted Orchid.

Self-heal was used in mediaeval times for binding up wounds.

I love the bright blue colour of milkwort.

Hoary Plantain , another fan of limy soils.

Tiny Wild Strawberries in miniature.

Wild Thyme has a distinctive fragrance.

The Bee Orchid flower resembles the rear of a small bumblebee.

The Bee Orchid is apparently the county flower of Bedfordshire.

Tutsan is a larger variety of St Johns Wort.

A meadow of Quaking Grass. The constant movement of its spikelets on their wiry stalks makes it’s lovely name really apt.

My sister chased this beautiful ❤️ day flying moth until she managed to get a photo. And I love it’s name ,Cinnabar Moth.

Anyone else noticed the huge amount of Ox Eye Daisies everywhere this year?

Have you a Nature Reserve local to you? Which wildflowers have you seen there?