Puxton is a great place to be a plant

The spring flowers of cuckoo flower and buttercups are starting to be overtaken by the far more vigorous summer blooms.

Looking down across the nature reserve from the wooden deck viewing area, Puxton looks like a great place to be a plant. There is ample water, plenty of space and a rich soil.

However, in reality, the environment of this reserve is a very challenging place to be a plant with only the strongest and fittest managing to survive long enough to shed their seeds.

This struggle is not caused by the plant having to battle against the environment, but because the environment is so good that huge numbers of plants end up battling against each other. All are striving to find a niche where they can secure themselves a glimmer of sunlight and a place to display their flowers to passing insects.

This fierce competition limits what can grow on the marsh and if this was allowed to be the only competitive force eventually there would be only one or two winning species.

Unfortunately, one of these would even turn out to be a foreign plant, Himalayan balsam, which can outgrow all our native flora. This is why the Ranger service has further skewed the plant competition rules by grazing the reserve.

Now plants not only have to be able to grow fast and tall, but they must also not taste too good to a cow. Bad news for the Balsam then, as cows seem to find this delicious. As for the rest of the plants this twist in the competition means a far greater variety of plants can find a niche out on the reserve.

This year, a new plant, the Common Spotted Orchid has found what it needs to live on this reserve. Its name suggests this is a common plant species and it may well have been at one time, but these days it is quite the rarity.

Reaching some 60cm in height it produces a wonderful floret of pink winged flowers and combined with lemon green with dark spotted leaves make this new addition to Puxton's flora a most beautiful and welcome sight.