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In June and July, the northern marsh orchid raises dense spikes of deep magenta-purple flowers, among the richest colours of any British orchid. Each flower has a broad, diamond-shaped lip marked with dark dashes and loops, which guide visiting bees towards the centre. Leafy green bracts rise between the flowers, and the leaves are usually plain green or only lightly spotted.
As its name suggests, it is a plant of northern Britain, growing in damp grassland, marshes and dune slacks. Like all orchids, it begins life entirely dependent on soil fungi: its dust-like seeds carry almost no food, and only germinate when a fungus supplies the energy they need.
It is also well known for colonising industrial land, including damp hollows on old spoil, quarries and other disturbed ground where low-nutrient soils keep taller plants in check. It often grows alongside the common spotted orchid, and the two readily cross, producing hybrids with flowers somewhere in between. In the damp corners of the old pit sites, its vivid spikes are one of the most striking signs of the land’s recovery.
In June and July, the northern marsh orchid raises dense spikes of deep magenta-purple flowers, among the richest colours of any British orchid. Each flower has a broad, diamond-shaped lip marked with dark dashes and loops, which guide visiting bees towards the centre. Leafy green bracts rise between the flowers, and the leaves are usually plain green or only lightly spotted.
As its name suggests, it is a plant of northern Britain, growing in damp grassland, marshes and dune slacks. Like all orchids, it begins life entirely dependent on soil fungi: its dust-like seeds carry almost no food, and only germinate when a fungus supplies the energy they need.
It is also well known for colonising industrial land, including damp hollows on old spoil, quarries and other disturbed ground where low-nutrient soils keep taller plants in check. It often grows alongside the common spotted orchid, and the two readily cross, producing hybrids with flowers somewhere in between. In the damp corners of the old pit sites, its vivid spikes are one of the most striking signs of the land’s recovery.