Pinkish-purple flowers that look like tiny soldiers, with a helmet formed by the sepals and petals and a lip with arms and legs
Military orchid — Orchis militaris.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Military orchid
Native · flowers May–Jun · chalk grassland and woodland glades; three sites
Orchis militaris — Orchidaceae
The military orchid is a rare pinkish-purple orchid whose flowers look like tiny soldiers: the sepals and petals gather into a helmet and the lip has arms and legs. Once widespread across southern England, it was thought extinct by 1900 and was rediscovered in the Chilterns in 1947. It survives at only three native sites, in Buckinghamshire and Suffolk.
How to spot them
- ▸Dense spike of pinkish-purple flowers, each with a grey-pink helmet and a pale lip
- ▸The five sepals and petals converge into the helmet, and the lip has two arms and two legs, making a soldier
- ▸Plant up to about 60 cm, with broad, glossy, unspotted leaves
- ▸Chalk grassland, scrub margins and woodland glades on lime-rich soil
- ▸Look-alike: the monkey orchid has a paler hood and much longer, thinner, curled arms and legs on the lip; the military's limbs are short and stubby
How to know it
Thought extinct in Britain by the turn of the twentieth century, it was rediscovered in Homefield Wood in Buckinghamshire in 1947
Military orchid — a famous rediscovery.
Restricted to three native sites: two in the Chilterns of Buckinghamshire and one nature reserve in Suffolk
Military orchid — Rex Graham Reserve, Suffolk, plus two Bucks sites.
Its species name means 'of soldiers', from the helmet shape of its hood
Military orchid — militaris.
Protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and maintained by grazing, mowing, raking and scrub clearance
Military orchid.
A close relative of the monkey orchid, differing in having short, stubby lip lobes rather than long, thin curling ones
Military orchid.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Orchidaceae; militaris is Latin for 'of soldiers'
- •Native; flowers May to June in northern Europe (First Nature)
- •Once widespread in southern England and thought extinct by the turn of the twentieth century; rediscovered in 1947 at Homefield Wood, Buckinghamshire (BSBI)
- •A second population was found in Suffolk in the 1950s, at what is now the Rex Graham Reserve
- •BSBI: three native sites remain, with about 300 plants at the Rex Graham Reserve in Suffolk and about 450 flowering plants in two Chilterns sites in Buckinghamshire
- •Past losses came from habitat loss and collecting; current management includes livestock grazing, mowing and raking, and scrub control
- •Protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; it is an offence intentionally to pick, uproot or destroy it. Never dig up or pick any wild orchid
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland — Orchis militaris, Military Orchid
- First Nature — Orchis militaris - Military Orchid
- legislation.gov.uk — Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Schedule 8