Herminium monorchis - Musk Orchid - (Orchidaceae)

Dactylorhiza viridis - Frog Orchid

This rare orchid is now confined to the southern part of England within the UK where it lives in short, cropped grass on chalk or limestone habitats.

This overall greenish-yellow orchid is very difficult to spot and usually grows to about 15 cm (occasionally to 30 cm) on short calcareous grassland. The flowers have a strong honey scent and are very attractive to insects but in order to pollinate the minute flowers the insects must be very small indeed. Rather than relying solely on pollination it seems that the Musk Orchid is mainly propagated vegetatively which would account for the large colonies that form in some locations in Europe, although the flower numbers fluctuate tremendously from year to year making it a difficult species to monitor.

The pretty little flowers of this diminutive orchid are honey-scented.

There are up to 20 species of Herminium, a Eurasian genus, recorded but only one from Europe.

The specimen to the left was photographed in Hampshire, at Noar Hill, in mid-June