One of the first orchids of spring: a purple hooded spike over glossy leaves boldly blotched with dark purple
Early purple orchid — Orchis mascula.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Early purple orchid
Flowers April to June
Orchis mascula — Orchidaceae
The early purple orchid is one of the first British orchids of the year, a dense spike of reddish-purple hooded flowers rising in April from a rosette of glossy, dark-blotched leaves. Its genus name comes from the Greek for testicle, after its paired underground tubers, and those tubers are the source of salep. It is generally the "long purples" that Ophelia gathers in Hamlet, called "dead men's fingers" by cold maids.
How to spot them
- ▸A dense spike of 10–50 reddish-purple flowers with a hooded upper part and a three-lobed, spotted lip
- ▸A long, stout, upcurved spur behind each flower, about as long as the ovary
- ▸Glossy, oblong basal leaves, usually boldly marked with dark purple blotches
- ▸Flowers April to June in woodland rides, coppice, chalk grassland and cliff-top turf on lime-rich soil
- ▸Smells of honey or vanilla at first, then distinctly of cat urine as the flowers age
How to know it
Its genus name is the Greek for testicle, after the pair of underground tubers
Orchis mascula — the early purple orchid, and the origin of the word orchid.
Those tubers, dried and ground, give salep, the flour of a Turkish thickened drink and ice cream
Early purple orchid — one of the orchids used for salep.
Sweet-smelling at first, its flowers turn to the scent of cat urine as they age
Early purple orchid.
Usually identified as the 'long purples' in Ophelia's garland, which cold maids call dead men's fingers
Early purple orchid — Hamlet, Act IV scene vii.
Called Gethsemane, from the story that its blotched leaves were stained at the Crucifixion
Early purple orchid.
A lime-loving orchid of coppice and downland whose spur holds no nectar, so bees are deceived into visiting
Early purple orchid — Orchis mascula.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Orchidaceae; Orchis is Greek for testicle, from the paired tubers, and mascula means male
- •The word 'orchid' derives from this genus name
- •Salep, made from dried orchid tubers, thickens the Turkish drink of the same name and the stretchy ice cream dondurma; harvesting has made several wild species scarce
- •The spur is empty of nectar — the orchid attracts bees by deceit
- •Like all orchids it needs a mycorrhizal fungus to germinate, and its dust-like seeds carry almost no food reserves
- •Shakespeare's 'long purples' in Hamlet IV.vii are usually taken to be this species, and 'dead men's fingers' refers to the pale tubers
- •Other names include Gethsemane, adder's meat, blue butcher and cuckoo flower
- •All wild British orchids are protected from uprooting under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; a few of the rarest are also on Schedule 8
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Early purple orchid (Orchis mascula)