- Purple Spotted Orchid ( Orchis mascula )
- Early Purple Orchid is the first Orchid in Britain to flower in the yearly
cycle. It has a rather dense spike of purple flowers (occasionally they are
pinkish and rarely they are white). Its exquisite flowers have the drawback of
somewhat of male cats, but I love the way the two sepals (outward leaves of the
calyx or outer whorl) are held like the wings of an angels, and also the little
'faces' in the flowers. The stem has several sheathing leaves at the base just
below the rosette of shiny green leaves with dark spots.
Early Purple Orchid is locally common throughout Britain and grows in woods
(including beech and oak woods), scrub, grassland and road-verges on moist,
non-acid soils. Flowers: April - June