Not to be semantically confused with : Hellebores [plants with similar names but which belong to the Buttercup Family [Ranunculaceae]]

It grows in calcareous soils especially on steep wooded slopes where the soil is thin. It only grows in woods, usually ancient woodland, in deep shade for it hates sunshine, even speckled. Usually with Beech trees but sometimes Yew, occasionally with overgrown Ash-Hazel coppice. It is found only south of Shrewsbury, in the Cotswolds, Chilterns, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Scattered populations in Surrey. Hampshire, Dorset, south Wiltshire, north Somerset and Glamorganshire.

It lacks sub-species but there exists a Epipactis leptochila var. cleistogama which is Cleistogamous with drooping flowers that never open and it may now be extinct.

There used to be some considerable confusion over the decades with the exact identities and provenance of the Helleborines now called Dune Helleborine (Epipactis dunensis) formerly called Epipactis leptochila var. dunensis, Tyne Helleborine (Epipactis dunensis ssp. tynensis) formerly called Epipactis leptochila var. tynensis and Narrow-Leaved Helleborine (Epipactis leptochila) but all has been resolved, for now...