Orchid Family:-

Orchids are "perennials, with either a creeping fleshy rootstock or a pair of root-tubers, and leaves always undivided and untoothed, often long, narrow, keeled and somewhat fleshy. Flowers often but by no means always showy, in unbranched terminal spikes, very various but always with 3 sepals which are usually the same colour as the 2 upper petals; lowest petal extremely variable, usually much larger than the others and in the form of a lip, often remarkably shaped and spurred behind. The flowers are in fact usually upside down; if not, the lip is uppermost. Each flower has a small leaf-like bract at its base, and the stamen and stigmas joined in a single column in the centre. The fruits are egg-shaped or cylindrical, with immensely numerous seeds like grains of dust. " from Collins Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers by David McClintock and R.S.R. Fitter assisted by Francis Rose - ISBN 0 00 219363 9 - Eleventh Impression 1978

Orchid Family plant table with its Common Name - Botanical Name. Flowering Months Range. Habitat with link to that Wild Flower Habitat Gallery:-

Common Name

Botanical Name

Flowering Months

Habitat

Coralroot Orchid

Corallorhiza trifida

June-July

A saprophytic herb usually found in shaded, damp, Alnus and Salix carr on raised mires and lake margins, but which also occurs in dune-slacks with Salix repens. More rarely, it grows in tall-herb fen, in Betula and Pinus woods (amongst Sphagnum) and on moorland. It may colonise secondary habitats, including plantations and quarries. 0-365 m (Braemar, S. Aberdeen).

Flower

Flowers

Foliage

Form

Creeping Lady's Tresses

Goodyera repens

July-August

A creeping, evergreen perennial herb of semi-natural and planted coniferous woodland, usually of Pinus sylvestris, where it grows in slight to moderate shade in moist layers of moss and pine-needles. It is also found under Pinus on old sand dunes. 0-335 m (Morinsh, Banffs.).

Flower from Nairn on 4 July

Flowers from Nairn on 4 July

Foliage from Nairn on 4 July

Form from Nairn on 4 July

Dark-Red Helleborine

Epipactis atrorubens

June-July

A perennial herb found mostly on bare rock or well-drained skeletal soils overlying limestone. Habitats include exposed scree slopes, open grassy banks, shaded grikes of limestone pavements and ledges on cliff and quarry faces. Reproduction is by seed but most populations are small and often include many non-flowering plants. 0-610 m (Gleann Beag, E. Perth).

Flower on 11 July

Flowers from Inchnadamph in Sutherland on 5 August

Foliage on Inchnadamph on 30 July

Form from Inchnadamph on 5 August

Flower from Poulsallagh

Flowers on 17 July

Foliage from Poulsallagh

Form from Poulsallagh

Flowers from Poulsallagh

Flowers on 17 July

Foliage from Poulsallagh in County Clare on 20 june

Kim photoing Dark Red Helleborine on Cliff Inchnadamph in Sutherland on 5 August

Dense-Flowered Orchid

Neotinea intacta

(Orchis intacta, Neotinea maculata, Aceras densiflora, Aceras intacta, Satyrium maculatum)

May

This tuberous perennial herb grows in a wide range of habitats on base-rich rocky or gravelly substrates. It can be found in the crevices of limestone pavement, in old pastures, hill grasslands, dunes and on road verges. Occasionally, it occurs on peat overlying more acidic rocks, and in Corylus-Fraxinus woodland. Lowland.

Flower

Flowers

Foliage

Form

Epipactis is a genus of orchid comprised of approximately 63 terrestrial species.

Dune Helleborine

Epipactis dunensis

June-July

Dunes (very local on sand-dunes in North-West England and North Wales)

Flower

Flowers

Foliage

Form

Early Marsh Orchid

Dactylorchis incarnata

(Dactylorhiza incarnata, Orchis incarnata)

May-July

A tuberous perennial herb growing on damp or wet calcareous soils, in meadows, marshes, ditches, fens, flushes and dune-slacks, and also on more acidic soils in bogs and damp heaths. 0-610 m (Atholl, E. Perth, and Caenlochan, Angus).

Flower from Kilshanny on 12 June

Flowers from Kerry

Foliage from Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Form from Kerry

Flower from Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Flowers from Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Flowers from Stoer in Sutherland on 27 June

Form from Stoer on 27 June

Flower

Flowers on 18 June

Foliage from Kent on 18 May

Form from Kent on 18 May

Flowers from Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Foliage from Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Foliage

Form

Early-Purple Orchid

Orchis mascula

April-June

This tuberous perennial herb grows on a variety of neutral and calcareous soils, and is most frequent in woodland, coppices and calcareous grassland. However, it also occurs in hedgerows, scrub, on roadsides and railway banks and on limestone pavement and moist cliff ledges. 0-880 m (Caenlochan, Angus).

Flower from Monks Dale on 21 May

Flowers from Monks Dale on 21 May

Foliage from Monks Dale on 21 May

Form from Monks Dale on 21 May

Flower from Downe Bank in Kent on 20 May

Flower

Flowers from Monks Dale on 21 May

Form from Peak District

Flower from Purple Hill in Kent in May

Flower from Downe Bank on 19 May

Flowers from Kent on 23 April

Form from Kent on 23 April

White Flower from Low Force in Westmoreland on 31 May

White Flowers

Foliage from Monks Dale on 21 May

Foliage from Kent on 23 April

Fen Orchid

(Loesel's Twayblade)

Liparis loeselii

(Ophyrs trigona, Orchis loeselii, Leptorchis loeselii, Liparis correana)

June-July

In East Anglia this pseudobulbous perennial herb is restricted to species-rich fens on infertile soils, and to old peat cuttings. Elsewhere, it grows in young dune-slacks. Lowland.

Flower from Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Flowers from Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Foliage from Kenfig Burrows

Form from Kenfig Burrows

Flower from Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Flower from Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Form from Kenfig Burrows

Form of Fen Orchid with Marsh Helleborine at Kenfig Burrows on 9 July

Fly Orchid

Ophrys insectifera

May-June

A shade-tolerant tuberous herb usually found on chalk and limestone soils in open deciduous woodland and scrub, but also recorded from grassland, chalk-pits, limestone pavement, disused railways, spoil heaps and, rarely, unstable coastal cliffs. In Ireland and Anglesey it is found only in open calcareous flushes and fens. 0-390 m (Helbeck Wood, Westmorland).

Flower from Kent on 22 May

Flowers from North Downs in Kent in May

Foliage

Form

Flower from Queensdown Warren in Kent in June

Flower in East Kent on 31 May

Foliage from Downe Bank in Kent on 20 May

Form from Downe Bank on 20 May

Walker from Kent on 31 May

Flower Buds in Kent in May

Snoozing Flower from North Downs in May

Eaten too much at Queensdown Warren

Pleading Flower from Kent on 1 June

Smiling Monster seen in Kent on 1 June

Sad Lady in Kent

Sitting down in Queensdown Warren

Frog Orchid

Coeloglossum viride

June-August

A tuberous perennial herb restricted in S. Britain to dry, well-grazed, base-rich grassland such as chalk downland and dunes, and in chalk-pits. Elsewhere it grows in a wider range of calcareous grasslands, flushes, limestone pavement, scree, rocky ledges, roadsides and quarries. 0-915 m (Glen Doll, Angus).

Victorian Grandma from Poulsallagh in County Clare on 20 June

Flowers from Inchnadamph in Sutherland on 5 August

Foliage from Poulsallagh

Form from Poulsallagh on 20 June

Flower from Poulsallagh on 20 June

Flowers with frogspit from Poulsallagh

Flower Buds from Poulsallagh

Juvenile Seed from Inchnadamph on 5 August

Ghost Orchid

Epipogium aphyllum

May-September

A saprophytic herb usually growing in deep leaf-litter in Fagus woods on chalk, with little or no associated ground flora. It is also occasionally recorded from Quercus woodland. The underground rhizomes have considerable longevity but the stems are short-lived and may not be produced annually. Although its flowers are pollinated by bees, seed is rarely produced. Lowland. It is very easily overlooked, since its pallid and varied colours camouflage it among the shady leaf-litter in beech- or oak-woods; recently seen only in the Chilterns, but formerly on the Welsh Border.

Flower

Flower from Chilterns on 3 August

Foliage on 3 August

Form on 3 August

Flower from Chilterns on 3 August

Flower from Chilterns on 3 August

Flower on 3 August

Mrs Foord sees a ghost

Green-Flowered Helleborine

Epipactis phyllanthes

July-August

A rhizomatous perennial herb typically found in sparsely vegetated, shaded places on dry, acidic, humus-poor substrates. Habitats include Fagus woods on flinty clays or sandstones, Pinus and Betula scrub on the Bagshot sands, Corylus coppice on sandy alluvium, and on sand dunes. Lowland. In deciduous Woodland. Book on this plant.

Flower from Kent on 18 August

Flowers on 2 September

Foliage at Eynsford on 11 August

Form from Eynsford on 11 August

Flower from Kent on 1 August

Flower Bud on 18 August

Flower and Seed

Foliage on 2 September

Green-Winged Orchid

Orchis morio

May-June

A tuberous perennial herb of damp to dry, base-rich to mildly acidic soils. It is most frequent in hay meadows and pastures, but also grows on sand dunes, heaths and roadsides, and in quarries, gravel-pits, churchyards and lawns. 0-305 m (Co. Dublin).

Flower from Queensdown Warren on 13 May

Flowers from Kent on 17 May

Foliage from Queensdown Warren on 17 May

Form from Queensdown Warren on 17 May

Flower from Queensdown Warren on 13 May

Flowers from Queensdown Warren on 17 May

Form

Flower with Bee on Top

From:-

Rare Plants of Shropshire 3rd edition

www.shropshirebotany.org.uk

"The Botanical Society of the British Isles has, in recent years, encouraged the production of County Rare Plant Registers to complement the more traditional botanical publications.......Following in the tradition of the Ecological Flora of the Shropshire Region (Sinker et al. 1985), Rare Plants of Shropshire is intended primarily for ecologists, so it contains historical records and NVC communities rather than colour photographs and detailed grid references."