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Orchis purpurea  - Lady Orchid.

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O.purpurea - flower, Cilento, Italy .  April 2007

One of the most attractive and largest Orchis species, the flower spike can reach 1m with up to 100 flowers.  Leaves are large, ovate and glossy green forming a robust rosette. Flowers are generally purple and white with the lip having a characteristic shape.  The surface of the lip is usually characterised by the presence of numerous tuft of hair-like papillae.  Flowers are variable from dark purple sepals with heavily marked lip to green sepals with a white lip. Usual habitat is open woodland and scrub on alkaline soils, rarely on open grassland. In Britain this species has been historically confined to the North Downs now only in Kent but it can also been found in two more recent sites in Oxfordshire. It has a wide distribution in Europe although with a south western bias.  Although never extremely common it sometimes occurs in large colonies which put on a great show.

Growing in an orchard, Campobassa, Italy. April 2007	On the edge of an orchard, Cilento, Italy. April 2007 O.purpurea - plants	Growing in coppiced chalk scrub, Kent, UK.  May 2005

Pale form, Campobassa, Italy.  April 2007	An aberrant spike, Campobassa, Italy.  April 2007 O.purpurea - flower spikes	White variant,  ?v. albida?, just opening, Kent, May 2005