Fragrant Orchid - Gymnadenia conopsea sensu stricto

Short to medium tuberous rooted plant, stem with 2 or 3 brownish basal sheaths.  Leaves 4 to 8 linear-lanceolate, plain green, decreasing in size up the stem.  Flowers usually pink or reddish lilac, but sometimes white or purple, vanilla scented in a rather dense slender spike, the upper sepal and petals forming a hood.  Lip 3 to 5 mm three lobed with a longer, slender, slightly curved spur.

Gymnadenia densiflora

Labellum (lower lip) lobed; scarcely wider than long.  There are other size differences; please refer to Stace (4th edition) for details

Records from this species should be confirmed by a County Recorder for botany.  It is rare in VC55, and therefore a specimen should not be taken.  Take detailed field photos and submit to NatureSpot as soon as possible; and if you think you have found it in a new location, inform the County Recorder as soon you can. (RPR)

Grassy habitats, meadows and pastures - dry chalk or limestone grassland.

Flowering June and July.

Perennial.

A local and occasional plant throughout much of Britain.  Recently split into three separate species, so older records are ascribed to Gymnadenia conopsea sensu lato.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland, but due the the recent splitting of a single species in three species, status is difficult to assess.   

In the current VC55 checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as Native. 

The plants at Herbert's Meadow in Ulverscroft were thought to be G densiflora, but research by the County Recorders and national Orchid referee in 2023 has shown that the balance of evidence is that they are Gymnadenia conopsea s.s.  (Ref:  Hall, G. 2023. Fragrant Orchids at Herbert's Meadows. Leic.Lit.&Phil.Soc.:NHS 117 4-6)

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Rare (i.e. present in less than 3 sites)