Dactylorhiza - Marsh and Heath Orchids

Dactylorhiza purpurella Northern Marsh Orchid.

It is smaller, squat with a flat top. Flowers deep purple with darker lines and dots over most of the lower petal, not just near its centre as in Orchis mascula  Early Purple Orchid. Leaves may be spotted or not.  Specimens with paler flowers may be hybrids with D. fuschii or D. maculata . 

D. purpurella var. cambrensis (= subsp. majaliformis) has spotted bracts.

Dactylorhiza maculata Heath Spotted Orchid

Lowest petal lobed with central lobe little more than a "tooth", usually not projecting any lower than side lobes, which are much larger, well rounded, and wavy-edged giving flower a distinctive "frilly" look. Flowers pink or pale violet to white, with variable amounts of marking in dots or lines (occasionally no marking).  Leaves with near-circular (not elliptical) spots or sometimes no spots.  Lowest leaves generally 3 x as long as broad, others even narrower. This is a common plant on acid heath and is found more commonly on the upland areas.

Dactylorhiza fuchsii Common Spotted Orchid

Lowest petal divided more than a quarter of the way, into 3 lobes, the side lobes being rather angular with straightish edges. Leaves often with spots that are broader across the leaf than along it, but sometimes unspotted.  Plants on good soil have tall cylindrical flower-spikes, which is never the case with Heath Spotted.

These three plants hybridise readily, for example:

Dactylorhiza fuchsii x purpurella = D. x venusta