 Photo ©
Carl Farmer |
Common on roadsides, grassy areas, including lawns, and marshy places Height c 5-30 cm. Flower-spike c 2-6 cm long x 2.5-4 cm wide. Skye ID: Flowers deep purple with darker lines and dots over most of the lower petal, not just near its centre as in Early Purple Orchid. Lower petal somewhat diamond-shaped, unlobed or shallowly lobed, not bent back as in Early Marsh Orchid. Told from Lapland Marsh Orchid by: flower-spike not one-sided, flower-bracts without spots (but often purplish), tooth at tip of lowest petal, if present, less than a fifth the length of the petal. Other features: Leaves may be spotted or not. Specimens with paler flowers may be hybrids with Common or Heath Spotted Orchids. The Dactylorhiza complex forms a continuum with the named taxa being merely clustering-points. |
