Scientific name: Dactylorhiza fuchsii (Druce) Soó
Common name: Common spotted-orchid
Description
Habit: Stems solid, slender, sometimes slightly hollow, 15-60cm high.
Leaves: 5-11 cauline leaves present, 2-8 times as long as wide, usually heavily spotted with black on upper surface, lower side greyish-green, shiny, the lowest broadly oval-oblong, obtuse, scarcely keeled, the upper ones narrower, more pointed and keeled, usually not as long as the flowering spike.
Flowers: Inflorescence dense to lax, initially conical then near cylindrical; 20-50 medium-sized flowers present, light pink to mauve, sometimes crimson; labellum flat, deeply and about equally 3-lobed, marked mostly around the median axis, with thick, purplish dots, streaks or rings and with 1-3 central loops, middle lobe prominent, triangular, longer than the lateral lobes, about 10mm wide; the lateral lobes often crenate; spur conical, pointing downwards.
Habitat: Sand dunes, dune slacks, pastures and meadows, acid heaths, eskers, pavement and quarries, mountains, bogs, marshes, fens and lakeshores and woodlands.
Distribution: Widespread, frequent.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No
Variation: Extremely variable species. Plant height, flower colour and the numbers and types of markings on the flowers vary immensely.