Orchis militaris (military orchid), Spanish Pyrenees

An uncommon orchid, growing on calcareous soils at locations in temperate Europe. Only three extant sites in the UK. The name stems from the imagined resemblance of the labellum to a human shape with military tunic buttons and the overarching petals appearing to be like the hat of an eighteenth-century soldier. From a slide taken in 2005.

220712 003DN

Done