A dense cone or dome of up to a hundred magenta flowers on chalk grassland, road verges and railway banks in June and July
Pyramidal orchid — Anacamptis pyramidalis.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Pyramidal orchid
Native · flowers Jun–Jul · chalk grassland, dunes, verges, quarries
Anacamptis pyramidalis — Orchidaceae
The pyramidal orchid is a bright magenta-pink orchid of chalk downland, dunes and railway banks, its flowers packed into a dense spike that is domed or conical when young. It is a butterfly and moth flower, with a slender spur that only a long tongue can reach, and is one of the commonest orchids on lime-rich ground in England and Wales.
How to spot them
- ▸Dense, conical or dome-shaped spike of bright pink to magenta flowers, up to about 100 in a spike, on a plant up to 55 cm tall
- ▸Leaves are narrow, pointed and unspotted, grey-green, held up the stem
- ▸Each lip has three broad, equal lobes, and a long thin spur curves down behind it
- ▸Chalk and limestone grassland, sand dunes, road verges, railway banks and quarries, June to July
- ▸Look-alike: common fragrant orchid has a longer, narrower, more cylindrical spike of paler lilac-pink flowers and a strong clove-orange scent; the pyramidal is a deeper pink with a domed top
How to know it
Its slender spur is reached only by a long proboscis, and marbled whites, burnet moths and other butterflies and moths carry its pollen
Pyramidal orchid — a butterfly- and moth-pollinated orchid.
Every flower has a lip of three equal lobes and a long thin spur, and the unspotted leaves are narrow and pointed
Pyramidal orchid.
Named for the shape of its flower-head; commonest on lime-rich ground and often the orchid colonising a sand dune or old quarry floor
Pyramidal orchid.
Its seed is dust-fine and cannot grow without a soil fungus, which feeds the seedling while the orchid's roots in turn protect the fungus
Pyramidal orchid — the Wildlife Trusts' description of the orchid-fungus partnership.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Orchidaceae; pyramidalis from the pyramid shape of the flower spike
- •Native; listed as Common by the Wildlife Trusts, widespread in England and Wales but scarcer in Scotland
- •Flowers June to July (the Wildlife Trusts); the spike can hold up to 100 densely packed flowers
- •Butterflies and moths, including the marbled white, visit for nectar held in the long spur
- •The Wildlife Trusts note that orchid seeds lack enough nutrients to grow alone and depend on a symbiotic soil fungus, with the fungus feeding the orchid and the orchid's roots protecting the fungus
- •Grows on chalk grassland, sand dunes, road verges, railway embankments and quarries, often on disturbed ground
- •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
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Pyramidal orchid
- legislation.gov.uk — Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 13