03/05/2026
Beautiful 🤩
Early-purple orchid
Other common names: foolstones; cuckoo flower
Scientific name: Orchis mascula
Family: Orchidaceae
Habitat(s): woodland and pastures on lime-rich soils
Flowering period: April - June Height (cm): 15 - 40 Status: locally common. The name of the early-purple orchid is straight-forwardly descriptive: it has purple flowers, and they appear early in the season. The plant with which one is most likely to confuse the early-purple orchid is the rare green-winged orchid, but they may be easily distinguished by virtue of the fact that the leaves of the latter are unspotted, while the early purple has large black blotches all the way up its leaves.
This orchid is found most often in woods on lime-rich soils. particularly where the wood has been coppiced, as in the National Park Authority’s own woodland at Asgarth Falls: Freeholders’ Wood.
Coppicing, which means cutting down the trees and shrubs in order to use the timber, safe in the knowledge that the trees will grow again, allows a lot of light to reach the woodland floor, which in turn encourages the growth of many herbs including the early-purple orchid.
