Tiny green and brown flowers, each with a rounded hood and a dangling, tongue-like lip like a tiny amphibian, hidden in short turf
Frog orchid — Dactylorhiza viridis.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Frog orchid
Native · flowers Jun–Jul · short grassland, downs, machair, hay meadows
Dactylorhiza viridis — Orchidaceae
The frog orchid is a small, green and brown orchid that hides in short grassland, its flowers each with a rounded hood and a dangling lip like a tiny frog. Easily overlooked and long in decline, the Wildlife Trusts call it potentially the UK's fastest-declining orchid. It was until recently called Coeloglossum viride, and DNA work moved it into Dactylorhiza with the spotted and marsh orchids.
How to spot them
- ▸Small plant, usually 5–15 cm tall (sometimes up to 35 cm), with three to five oval leaves, the upper ones narrow and clasping the stem
- ▸Flowers are yellowish-green, sometimes tinged reddish-purple, and easily lost among the grass
- ▸Each has a rounded hood and a long, strap-like lip that hangs down and is shallowly notched at the tip, like a frog's hind legs
- ▸Short grassland on chalk and limestone downs, quarries, hay meadows, machair and road verges, June to July
- ▸Look-alike: twayblade also has green flowers, but has just two large, broad, paired leaves halfway up the stem and a deeply forked lip
How to know it
Potentially the UK's fastest-declining orchid, hit by agricultural intensification, undergrazing and drought
Frog orchid — Wildlife Trusts.
Long known as Coeloglossum viride, DNA studies moved it into the same genus as the spotted and marsh orchids, with which it can hybridise
Frog orchid — now Dactylorhiza viridis.
A dwarf of downland, machair and hay meadows, typically no taller than a hand and often overlooked because it is green
Frog orchid.
Its species name means 'green', for the colour of the flower and the plant
Frog orchid — viridis.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Orchidaceae; viridis is Latin for 'green'; previously known as Coeloglossum viride
- •Native; flowers June to July (Wildlife Trusts)
- •Wildlife Trusts: potentially the UK's fastest declining orchid, through agricultural intensification, lack of grazing and drought, and declines have been particularly severe in England
- •Grows in short grassland: chalk and limestone downland, quarries, machair, hay meadows and road verges
- •Genetic research moved it from Coeloglossum into Dactylorhiza; it hybridises readily with marsh orchids and spotted orchids (Wildlife Trusts)
- •Usually 5–15 cm tall, occasionally 35 cm, with three to five leaves; its inconspicuous colour and small size make it easy to overlook
- •Not on Schedule 8, but it is an offence under section 13(1)(b) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 for anyone who is not an authorised person to intentionally uproot any wild plant. Do not dig up wild orchids
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Frog orchid
- legislation.gov.uk — Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 13