Green and Yellow Orchids
What are they?
This is an artifical assemblage of orchids whose only real connection is that they have flowers that are predominantly green and/or yellowish in colour. A number of these species are surprisingly tiny and therefore decidedly underwhelming as far as orchids go! The group also includes some of the helleborines that have flowers of a predominantly green or yellowish colour.
Where are they found?
The plants on this page occur in a great variety of habitats; from dry, chalky banks to permanently wet, fen habitats.
Identification
The common thread pulling these species together is simply the overall flower colour, so details of habitat choice and the structure of the flowers will readily identify them. The species are arranged more or less with the larger and commoner species first. The final three are all very small and very rare. Note that it might also be worth checking other helleborines and the butterfly orchids, both groups of which can sometimes show a greenish or yellowish cast to the flowers.
Broad-leaved Helleborine Epipactis helleborine
Native, scattered in woodland and shady shelter belts throughout the region. Flowers July to September. Spikes can grow to a metre in height and contain up to 50 flowers, though plants may often be much smaller. Flowers with an open, star-shaped look and broad sepals and petals. Leaves broadly ovate, usually spirally arranged on the stem. Flower spike hairy between the flowers.
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Green-flowered Helleborine Epipactis phyllanthes
Native, in shady woodland. An enigmatic species that has apparently disappeared from much of the region and may now only be present at two sites in Norfolk. However, plants appeared recently within the boundaries of the City of Norwich, so it may turn up again elsewhere. Flowers July to August. Spikes to 50cm in height and contain up to 35 flowers, though plants are frequently much smaller. Flowers green and often (typically in Norfolk specimens) not opening but self-pollinating within a more or less closed flower. The flowers occasionally openly partly after pollination, but are then often already starting to turn brown. Leaves broadly ovate, arranged in two ranks on the stem. Flower spike not hairy between the flowers.
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Common Twayblade Neottia ovata
Native. Widespread in a wide range of habitats from woodland to grassy places and damp meadows. Flowers May to July. Spikes 20-60cm in height with many flowers. Flowers green with a narrow labellum that is forked towards the tip. Leaves very broadly ovate, appearing as a single pair at the base of each flowering spike and giving the species its English name.
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Man Orchid Orchis anthropophora
Native. Widespread but rare with just single sites in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire and a small population scattered through south-central Suffolk on chalky soils. Flowers June to July. Spikes 20-60cm in height with many flowers. Flowers yellowish and pale green with a narrow labellum that is forked towards the tip and has two narrow side lobes, giving the overall impression of a small person and hence the English name.
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Frog Orchid Dactylorhiza viridis
Native. Once much more frequent in East Anglia on chalky grassland but now extremely rare and reduced to just two locations, in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Flowers June to August. Spikes tiny, 2-10cm in height with 5-20 flowers. Flowers yellowish green in East Anglia, often purplish tinted in other populations Typically a tiny plant, greenish overall and easily missed among other vegetation. The flowers have a labellum of just 3.5-9mm long which broadens slightly and is forked at the tip.
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Fen Orchid Liparis loeselii
Native. Extremely rare nationally with small populations only present in the Norfolk Broads and at two sites in South Wales. There is some hope in recent re-introduction projects that have increased numbers in wet fen habitats but the plight of this species - both locally and globally - remains precarious. Flowers June to July. Spikes 5-20cm in height with 1-10 flowers (typically 3-5). Flowers yellowish green, uniquely facing upwards and apparently pollinated by rain drops. Sepals and petals all narrowly linear, exept the labellum which is broader and curved.
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Musk Orchid Herminium monorchis
Native. Formerly recorded from a number of sites on chalky grassland in East Anglia but now lost due to habitat destruction - last recorded in Suffolk in 1914. Flowers June to July. Spikes 7-15cm in height with tightly packed, minute flowers. Flowers yellowish green, uniquely with very narrow sepals and petals, including the labellum which has three, linear, spike-like lobes.
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