Purple Spotted Orchid
Orchis mascula
Orchidacea (Orchid family)

Synonym: Early Purple Orchid

Flowers: April - June.

Early Purple Orchid is the first Orchid in Britain to flower in the yearly cycle. It has a rather dense spike of purple flowers (occasionally they are pinkish and rarely they are white). Its exquisite flowers have the drawback of somewhat of male cats, but I love the way the two sepals (outward leaves of the calyx or outer whorl) are held like the wings of an angels, and also the little 'faces' in the flowers. The stem has several sheathing leaves at the base just below the rosette of shiny green leaves with dark spots.

Early Purple Orchid is locally common throughout Britain and grows in woods (including beech and oak woods), scrub, grassland and road-verges on moist, non-acid soils.

I've written an article in Groovy Grove with thoughts and reflections about the connections of Orchids with the legendary satyrs and some of the history of the use of the Early Purple Orchid by human beings: Please see: Orchids in the Woods

The tubers of this Orchid were in the past much sought after for food and to make a much-loved drink. Richard Mabey summarises this use in his excellent book "Food for free":
"It would be criminal to dig up any of the dwindling colonies of British orchids, let alone for food. Yet this lilac-flowered species deserves a place for completeness' sake, as it has been one of the more fascinating and valuable of wild foods. The tubers contain a starch-like substance called bassorine, which has in it more nutritive matter than any other single plant product, one ounce being sufficient to sustain a person for a whole day.
In the Middle East, where the plant is more common, it is still widely used. The roots are dug up after the plant has flowered, and are occasionally eaten as they stand, either raw or cooked. But they are most usually made into a drink called Cahlab. For this the tubers are dried in the sun and ground into a rough flour. This is mixed with honey and cinnamon, and stirred into hot milk until it thickens.
In Britain a similar drink called Salop was a common soft drink long before the introduction of coffee houses. In Victorian books it is mentioned as a tea-break beverage of manual workers. They made it with water more often than with milk, sometimes lacing it with spirits, sometimes brewing it so thick that it had to be eaten with a spoon." (Mabey, Richard - "Food for free", Harper Collins, 1992.)

Other pages about Orchids in this Woodland flower section are:

• Birdsnest Orchid - Neottia nidus avis
• Broadleaved Helleborine - Epipactis helleborine
• Common Twayblade - Listera ovata
• Creeping Lady Tresses - Goodyeara repens
• Greater Butterfly Orchid - Platanthera chlorantha
• Green-flowered Helleborine - Epipactus phyllanthes
• Lesser Butterfly Orchid - Platanthera bifolia
• Lizard Orchid - Himantoglossum hircinum
• Narrow-lipped Helleborine - Epipactus leptochilla
• Red Helleborine - Cephanlanthera rubra
• Stinking Hellebore - Helleborus foetidus

Previous Page

Next Page