Northern marsh orchid?

[squishy]

There were a few of these growing in a fairly damp meadow, they were between 15 and 25cm high at a guess.
I've had northern marsh orchid suggested, can anyone confirm?



Thanks.

[the young hunter]

Close! Looks like a Southern Marsh orchid to me.

Mike.

[Andy Warne]

Hi Adam, It is a Southern Marsh Orchid rather than Northern Marsh.

Andy

[Deb London]

Lovely shot Adam.

[Dorts]

I think Mike and Andy are being very bold with their suggestions of Southern Marsh.

I have spent some time looking at this plant and am unable to put it into any specific group.

It is often not possible to give specifis status to a single plant such is the variability of our dactyl orchids and the geographical differences within species.

Southern Marsh is just the 'vicariant' of Nothern Marsh, which itself was formerly considered a subspecies of D, Majalis.

The central lobe of this plant is far too prominant for it to be soley considered as D. praetermissa.

So I would go no further than to put it into that broad Southern/Northern Marsh group.
Dorts.

[squishy]

I've got one shot of another plant in the group of them, the quality isn't as good but I could post that if it could help?

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by squishy

I've got one shot of another plant in the group of them, the quality isn't as good but I could post that if it could help?

It may help if it displays any different characters.

There are a number of features which will help to determine whether the species is Southern or Northern Marsh that may not be apparent from a photo, such as:
'Is the stem solid or hollow'.
'Are the leaves hooded, and if so, by how much'.
'How wide are the leaves'.
'Are the leaves spotted and if yes, what form do the spots take'.

Many of the leaders in the field of Britains dactyl-orchids have difficulty assigning specific status to particular plants.
So occasionally we just have to accept that a name cannot be given.
Dorts.