Scientific name: Epipactis palustris (L.) Crantz
Common name: Marsh helleborine
Description
Habit: Rhizomatous, mostly shortly so. Stem leafy, 20-45(-60)cm high, thin and wiry, usually hairy above.
Leaves: Several, all on stem, leaves spiral, oblong-lanceolate, rather erect, 7-12cm long, mostly more than 2 times as long as wide.
Flowers: Flowers distinctly pedicellate, borne spirally or more or less on one side of stem; drooping, in a rather lax raceme with longish, green bracts; flowers 17mm across; sepals deep pink or purplish-red; upper petals shorter and paler; labellum at least as long as sepals, white, veined with red and with a yellow spot in the middle; labellum usually differentiated approximately 1/2 way into proximal and distal parts, neither markedly lobed, the proximal part more or less cup-shaped and not wrapped around column; rostellum obvious and secreting a white sticky sap (viscidium), or minute and with 0 or vestigial viscidium; ovary slender, spindle-shaped, covered with short brown down.
Habitat: Dune slacks and marshes, fens and lakeshores.
Distribution: Locally frequent but declining, in the Centre; rare elsewhere.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No
Variation: Some plants have flowers with low levels of red pigment and these flowers sometimes look yellow or white in colour.