Dactylorhiza majalis - Broad-leaved Marsh-orchid - (Orchidaceae)

Dactylorhiza majalis - Broad-leaved Marsh-orchid

The Broad-leaved Marsh-orchid is a large and robust-looking plant that can grow up to 70cm in height. It has four to ten leaves which are nearly always spotted with large, dark, brownish-purple marks.

Each infloresence carries up to 50 dark pink-to purple flowers which are rather large. The dorsal sepals and petals form a hood over the lip which is marked with deep purple loops and dots, and convex at the base.

It flowers from May until mid-July and grows in marshy, unimproved meadows which is where we found the specimens on this page in the Triglav National Park in Slovenia. The soil there is predominantly alkaline, but the other flowers we found close to these orchids indicated that the particular spot where we found the orchids was slightly more acidic than other parts of the park where there is a lot of exposed limestone.

A closeup of the flower of Dactylorhiz majalis

The dorsal sepals and petals of the
flower form a hood over the lip

The Broad-leaved Marsh-orchid can be found from southern Sweden as far south as Northern Spain and the Dolomites in Italy. In the UK and Ireland two subspecies are reported, one from Wales and the other from The Burren in County Clare although both are very difficult to identify with confidence.

The specimens on this page were photographed in Slovenia in mid-June and were part of a group numbering around 20 plants in extremely wet and marshy ground.