Scientific name: Orchis morio L.
Common name: Green-winged Orchid
Description
Habit: Plant with 2 ovoid underground tubers. Stem hollow, robust, usually washed violet at tip, 7-50cm high.
Leaves: 5-10 basal leaves present, several on stem, with few smaller ones above, broadly lanceolate, more or less basal, unspotted.
Flowers: In a short and rather dense, near cylindrical spike; flowers almost uniformly mauvish-purple but labellum with pale, darker-spotted central region and upper petals with green veins, 15-20mm across; sepals and upper petals form a hood; labellum broader than long, convex, shallowly lobed; spur straight, upwardly directed, stout, long or short.
Habitat: Sand dunes, dune slacks, pastures and meadows, eskers, pavement and quarries.
Distribution: Occasional and declining, in the Centre and parts of the East, rare elsewhere.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: Yes
Variation: Very variable. Flower colour can range from albino forms to pink and deep purple. Irish populations are predominantly purplish-magenta.