Heath Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) This is a blackcurrant ripple ice cream doing a cancan, a dancing head of a flower in which the white predominates over the purple flecks. It has narrow leaves, which cling tightly to the flower stem, except for the lowest pair, which are broader, spotted and splayed out to either side. Above them stands quite a chunky, densely packed spike of frilly flowers. Often, if you find one, you will find a hundred – they tend to hang around in big swathes. It is often confused with Common Spotted-orchid (p.148), or hybrids between the two, but Common Spotted grows in lower, dryer, less acidic grassland, is usually bigger and has different flower shapes. The lip of the Heath Spotted-orchid is only shallowly three-lobed, and the middle lobe is shorter and more pointed than the rounded side lobes. The reverse is the case for Common Spotted-orchid: its lip is deeply three-lobed and the central lobe is at least as long or longer than the others. Plant type Orchid family, Orchidaceae. Flowers Mid May– July, but in the north it can flower well into August. Height Up to 50cm, usually 10–25cm. Description Hairless, erect perennial herb. Leaves are lanceolate, keeled, with circular dark blotches. The spike typically has between five and twenty flowers, although sometimes up to fifty. Flowers are white to pale pink with variable dark reddish-purple markings. Companion species Bog Pimpernel (p.291), Cross-leaved Heath (p.354), Heather (p.357), Heath Milkwort (p.357) and Round-leaved Sundew (p.365). Distribution Native. Found throughout Britain and Ireland but much more common in the north and west (where it is more common than Common Spotted-orchid) than in the south and east. In much of the East Midlands it is a rare flower. Habitat Well-drained or wet acidic soils in a wide variety of habitats, including grasslands, moors, heaths, flushes and bogs. It also occurs in pockets of peat on limestone and, more rarely, in open woodland.
Lesser Butterfly-orchid
Plant type Orchid family, Orchidaceae. Flowers June–July. Height Up to 45cm. Description Erect perennial herb with usually two (but sometimes three) oval, flaccid, shiny green basal leaves and one to five narrower stem leaves. The spike is cylindrical with five to twenty-five creamy- to greenishwhite flowers. Each flower has a strap-shaped lip (6–12mm long) and two lateral sepals that spread outwards. The two other petals and upper sepal form a loose hood over the pollinia. A long, curved spur protrudes from the back of the flower. Companion species Burnet Rose (p.68) and Kidney Vetch (p.403). Distribution Native. Widespread throughout Britain and Ireland, particularly in the north and west, but not common. It is absent from much of central and eastern England and its remaining populations in the south are often small and isolated. It is listed as Vulnerable, but it can be locally abundant, as at Plantlife’s Cae Blaen-dyffryn reserve in Carmarthenshire. Habitat Moorland in the north and west of Britain, often in quite damp ground, such as on the margins of bogs. On grass heath, it may occur under thin Bracken (p.351). In the south of England, it is found in deciduous woodland and scrub on calcareous soils.
(Platanthera bifolia) This is one of my favourite native orchids. I love its subtle colour range of white, lime green and dark green – the colours of a white garden in a single plant. The flowers are highly scented, especially at dusk, presumably to attract moths. Like Greater Butterfly-orchid (p.13), its flowers are loosely and airily arranged around the main stem, but each one is more delicate. You can tell it apart from its larger relative, with which it sometimes grows, by looking into the flowers. In Greater Butterfly-orchid, the pollinia are well separated at the base but converge at the tip, but in this species the pollinia are held parallel all the way down.
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