Southern marsh orchid: Orchids of Europe # 5

On my journey to work in the morning there's a section of the A358 roadside which gets carpeted in beautiful orchids. I'm usually going much too fast to have a proper look but yesterday I noticed some darker ones amongst them, so I turned off the road this morning to have a proper look.

I felt a bit odd crouching over the flowers in my business suit while commuters streamed past, but I figured I'd be pretty unlucky for anyone I know to see me. Very few of my colleagues come in from the same direction.

Mid-morning my boss's boss came back from a meeting 'Put my mind at rest Geoff' he said. 'Did I imagine it or were you standing by the road looking at flowers this morning?' Oops.

Anyway, it was worth it. These are what I found - the southern marsh orchid Dactylorhiza preatermissa. Behind them you can see the noticeably paler common spotted orchids. As well as being darker, the southern marsh orchid has no spots on its leaves.

Both species are common in southern Britain. In much of Scotland the southern marsh orchid is replaced by the even darker northern marsh orchid.

Orchids of Europe # 4 and links to previous in series