IT WAS one of those flowers that just had to make me pause for a closer look; a northern marsh orchid with its spike of purple magnificence flowering by a track near Lossburn Reservoir in the Ochils.

There is no word in our language that adequately describes the powerful depths of such spellbinding purpleness as found in the marsh orchid.

This is a flower that captivates like no other and it is easy to see why orchids have enthralled mankind since the earliest of times.

Indeed, orchids have long been associated with love and fertility. The Greek physician Dioscorides believed that orchids influenced sexuality and that eating their roots could determine the sex of unborn children.

At one time, orchids were used in love potions in Ireland and the Shetland Isles.

The edge of this track in the western Ochils, not too far from Alloa, was home to a number of other attractive wildflowers too.

Among these was heath bedstraw, a sprawling mat-forming plant with the tiniest dusting of white flower heads.

In some of the damper margins I came across lousewort, a plant so-called because it was once believed they helped to infest sheep with lice.

Mountain pansies also occur here. In the Ochils the purple variety predominates but in some parts of the country yellow-flowering mountain pansies are more common.

This abundance of these hill flowers acts as a magnet for butterflies and among the most prevalent is the green-veined white, which is on the wing for much of the year and has the most exquisite and delicately marked wings.