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Pseudorchis albida. Orchis miel. Small white orchid. An orchid that loves altitude and cool climates: We will find it from 500 m in the Alps, the Pyrenees and sometimes the Massif Central, Jura and Vosges. Elsewhere, we will find it in Northern Europe or in Russia. One of a kind. A medium-sized plant (between 10 and 30 cm), it grows in meadows or at the edge of high-altitude lakes. Quite easy to identify and generally spotable within the vegetation, it develops a variable inflorescence of approximately 10 to 50 flowers. Click on the photos to enlarge

Anacamptis papilionacea. Orchis papillon. Pink butterfly orchid. Where to find it ? Clic on the map and connect to Orchis sauvage, FFO-Fédération France Orchidées The Butterfly Orchid is a large orchid that generally lives in colonies around the Mediterranean. Confusion with other species is almost impossible. The leaves are short, sheathing and not spotted. Petals and sepals are finely veined. The serrated labellum is more or less curved. It can be narrow and plain to very wide and finely striated: we are then on the spectacular "Grandiflora" variety. Its color is generally lighter than the other floral parts. Click on the photos to enlarge

Orchis anthropophora. Orchis homme pendu. Man orchid The Hanging Man Orchid is part of the Orchis genus, which has largely been stripped of many species now classified in the Anacamptis or Dactylorhiza genera. It was part of the Aceras genus, which now has no representatives in France. Orchis are tuberous orchids, usually having two which gave them their Greek name Orchis which means testicle. One of the tubers allows the growth of the plant while the second forms during this same period and will replace the original tuber gradually withered the following year. If we were to dig up an orchid (which I of course prohibit), we would therefore find the tuber of the year more or less withered, the tuber in the making for the future season and sometimes an old one totally withered from the previous year. Orchids are fairly tall plants (20 to 60 cm), rather robust and easily spotted in meadows, wastelands or light undergrowth. The preferred soils are generally calcareous or marly and rather dry. The sepals and lateral petals are united to form a "helmet" while the central petal (labellum) offers a fairly complex shape that varies from one species to another. Three Orchis are quite close morphologically and "coloristically": Orchis militaris (Military Orchis), Orchis purpurea (Purple Orchis) and Orchis simia (Monkey Orchis). Hybridizations are therefore possible that will not allow a certain identification. Of a color where green dominates, but with yellow and a little purple tints, it is generally not very colorful. Its labellum is long and narrow, a bit like a silhouette whose legs and arms hang down along the body, hence its name "hanging man" in French and "Man orchid" in English. It likes drained limestone soils and is often found on small slopes, edges of paths, embankments, rarely on forest paths but sometimes on the edge of woods. It hybridizes easily with other Orchis (military, purple or monkey). Present in many departments (except Brittany), it flowers between the end of April and the end of June depending on the region and altitude. It is one of the most common orchids in France. Click on the photos to enlarge

Neottia nidus-avis. Neottie nid d'oiseau. Bird's nest orchid. Orchid rather easy to find in the eastern part of the territory but rarer in the west. This plant does not like light and is most often found on the edges of undergrowth or on shaded slopes. Its name comes from its fine, tangled roots. It is said to be a parasite but it draws its subsistence from fungi and therefore from an underground association. As it has an air of resemblance to the orobanches which are themselves parasitic plants, the confusion persists. Sometimes solitary, often in duo and sometimes in larger colonies, the orchid flowers in May, June and until July at altitude (up to 2000 meters). Click on the photos to enlarge

Neotinea ustulata. Orchis brûlé. Burnt orchid. (L.) A beautiful little orchid whose labellum shape vaguely resembles the Purple Orchid (Orchis purpurea ) from a distance. But upon closer observation, the differences quickly become apparent. The plant measures between 10 and 30 cm and bears a variable inflorescence of tiny helmet-shaped flowers (sepals and petals join together to form a hood over the labellum). The labellum is white, speckled with small purple dots, while the hood is purple, varying in intensity. This orchid can be found across much of the country, except in northern France, and flowers from May to early July, depending on region and altitude (up to 2000 m). It can be abundant or rare depending on the biotope, and quickly disappears if the surrounding vegetation becomes too dense, as it prefers short-grass meadows. There is a subspecies or variety (Neotinea ustulata var. aestivalis ) that flowers in July, mainly in the Alps, and is said to be taller, with a more developed flowering spike. It's not easy to determine whether this is truly a distinct variety or simply a late flowering form of the type species, as there are no known sites where both types bloom at different times. Having observed plants in bloom in July in Savoie (where N. ustulata usually flowers in May in other French departments), I still cannot tell them apart! Morphologically, there is no obvious difference — even though N. ustulata var. aestivalis is sometimes described as “taller,” one can find equally tall individuals of the type species elsewhere. The mountain climate and altitude may also explain the later blooming time. However, in the Essonne region, N. ustulata can be observed in May, and the species or its variety aestivalis blooms in nearby Seine-et-Marne (just 25 km away) from mid-June — with a time gap of nearly six weeks, despite nearly identical climate and altitude. This would seem to support the reality of a variety with a delayed flowering period. The flowers of the aestivalis variety also appear slightly more robust. Notably, its blooming is highly irregular from year to year (a ratio of 1 in 10 at least), which is not the case for N. ustulata , which flowers abundantly and consistently in May. Late spring weather events may explain this irregularity. Still, this is the only population known in the area and is highly localized. Does a temporally shifted flowering in such a micro-population justify naming it a separate variety ? Click on the photos to enlarge

Découvrez Ophrys scolopax Ophrys becasse sur Orchidée-photo.com Ophrys philippi. Ophrys de Philippe. Philippe's ophrys. (Grenier) The description of Philippe's Ophrys dates back to 1859, but it was initially considered a hybrid of Ophrys scolopax x Ophrys aranifera. The species is rare and was overshadowed for many years before being "rediscovered" by Pierre-Michel Blais, the current cartographer of the Var. It is apparently the rarest endemic ophrys in France, with only a handful of locations known, solely in the southern part of the Var department. Click on the photos to enlarge

Cypripedium calceolus. Sabot de Venus. Lady's slipper. Où la rencontrer ? Cliquer sur la carte et aller sur Orchis sauvage, FFO-Fédération France Orchidées The emblematic orchid of French flora! Recognizable among all orchids and emblematic of the difficulty these flowers have in living in our landscapes crisscrossed by tourists and Sunday walkers. Formerly very abundant, Lady's Slipper have been picked more than reason to the point of almost disappearing. Their habitat is also threatened due to pastoral abandonment and the overgrowth of their biotope. In the north of the Côte d'Or, a cold climate allows them to perpetuate themselves because otherwise, the species is rather mountainous or northern. The little story says that the species would have been introduced there by monks then would have "escaped" into the neighboring forests. Generally, the foot supports a single flower but sometimes 2. Once fertilized, the flower fades quite quickly and its flowering is only observable for a short period around June 1 and until June 15 in the mountains. Click on the photos to enlarge

Ophrys sulcata. Ophrys sillonné. Syn: Ophrys funerea, Ophrys lupercalis, Ophrys sulcata , Ophrys from the south and southwest of France, this Ophrys poses in theory few identification problems. It is part of the Pseudophrys like the Ophrys lutea. The labellum is relatively elongated, furrowed more or less deeply in its central part, devoid of humps . What is not visible is its pollination by specific insects (usually hymenoptera) which position themselves with their abdomen facing the reproductive organs, which is the opposite of other Ophrys. Despite this particularity, hybrids are possible with Ophrys. . Species determination can be complex because authors do not agree, sometimes grouping certain taxa together and sometimes multiplying species. You will therefore sometimes find a single species: Ophrys fusca (Brown Ophrys) with the synonym Ophrys sulcata (Furrowed Ophrys). ), and Ophrys lupercalis (Ophrys lupercalis) or the 3 very distinct species as well as many others. Pierre Delforge even indicates that O. fusca is not present in France... in defiance of the official classification. It's not better with Remy Souche...the two often contradict each other. Each author or local botanist is convinced that he holds the truth of course as to the name or as to its identification criteria, its flowering period ... but in view of the divergent opinions, it is preferable to refer to the official classification as long as that research has not been able to determine with certainty whether these are different species or simply local variations. When the search for precision leads to a complexity marked by manifest errors, it is better to return to a saving simplification. I have therefore attempted here to present views respecting the most striking distinctive elements of determination. Click on the photos to enlarge

Traunsteinera globosa. Orchis globuleux. Globe orchid. This orchid has a marked preference for altitude! It can be found from 1000 m in the Alps and sometimes the Massif Central. Its distribution is European but covers the Alpine massif only. Unique in its genus in France, a second species is found in Turkey. A fairly tall plant (between 20 and 50 cm), it grows in meadows and will blend in from afar with other flowers with a large abundance and similar silhouette (the knautia in particular) and may therefore not be recognized even by an experienced orchidophile. Same general appearance, same height, same color, so you will have to be careful. The leaves have the same shade as the stem and are more or less sheathing, so sometimes not very visible in dense vegetation. The "ball" inflorescence with a high density of flowers deserves to be observed closely in order to admire their complexity. Click on the photos to enlarge

Cephalanthera damasonium. Cephalanthère à grandes fleurs. Large white helleborine. Cephalanthera are generally light undergrowth orchids. The flowers open little. To distinguish the 3 species, it is quite simple: the red cephalanthera has pink flowers, the long-leaved cephalanthera has leaves that start from the base of the plant and form upright swords, the large-flowered cephalanthera has rounder leaves on the entire stem. You should not always trust the colors of vernacular and even Latin names. The white helleborine has more yellow flowers than the longifolia helleborine and the red helleborine ( rubra ) has pink flowers... As for the size, I found many longifolia helleborines larger than the white helleborines (Large white helleborine in English). It is therefore essentially on the shape of the leaves that we will distinguish Cephalanthera damasonium presented here from Cephalanthera longifolia . Click on the photos to enlarge

Découvrez sur Orchidée-photo.com Dactylorhiza incarnata Orchis incarnat Dactylorhiza majalis . Orchis de Mai. Broad leaved marsh orchid. (Reichenbach) Some dactylorhizas will give you a hard time when it comes to identification, as each species varies and hybrids are common. In some regions, these hybrids may even outnumber the type species. Observing dactylorhizas is yet another demonstration that certain specialists tend to split and name what are sometimes merely varieties. Evolution is indeed underway, but it will not occur on the scale of our current humanity. Patience! I will therefore present only a few species, those whose identification remains certain. Dactylorhiza majalis grows in varied terrains but always in moist conditions. Less often in fallow land, and often in considerable numbers and density in mountain meadows. Its more or less folded labellum, its leaves which may or may not be spotted, and its variations in hue do not make diagnosis easy. (There is no point in checking whether the stem is hollow, as has sometimes been suggested for identification purposes, since dactylorhizas often have this characteristic; it would be a rather pointless sacrifice.) It flowers between April and July, depending on the habitat and altitude — which again makes it difficult to sort the various dactylorhiza species. Click on the photos to enlarge