Scientific name: Listera ovata (L.) R. Brown
Common name: Common twayblade
Description
Habit: Sturdy, entirely green, 20-75cm high; stem thick and with whitish hairs at the apex.
Leaves: With a single pair of almost opposite leaves, below the middle of the stem; 6-20cm long, with sheathing bases, not cordate, ovate-elliptic, with 3-5 prominent longitudinal veins.
Flowers: Usually greater than 15 but less than 100 flowers present, shortly pedicellate, in a long, slender, rather lax raceme; sepals oval; upper petals linear-oblong, forming with the sepals, a loose hood 4-5mm long; labellum yellowish-green, 10mm long, deeply divided into 2 linear, obtuse lobes; ovary globular, on a distinct pedicel, 4-6mm long.
Habitat: Sand dunes, dune slacks, pastures and meadows, acid heaths, eskers, pavement and quarries, marshes, fens and lakeshores and woodlands.
Distribution: Frequent.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No
Note: The forked tongue of the labellum has a central nectar-producing groove that provides a reward for the flies and wasps that visit the flowers.
Variation: Plants with more than two leaves have been found.