A lightly colored orchid that knows how to remain discreet: its generally green color, sometimes tinged with red, and its small size (often around ten centimeters) make it invisible in the meadows it favors. It is said to have disappeared from many regions and even if we have noted a real decline in populations, it is sometimes still present but not recorded hidden in the green grass. 

Genetically close to Dactylorhiza, the genus to which it is sometimes linked, it is nevertheless morphologically distinct: little coloured, smaller, with a much shorter nectar spur and a bifid lip that is longer than it is wide.