Coeloglossum viride   Frog Orchid C DD N

Coeloglossum viride1 Coeloglossum viride2 Coeloglossum viride close

This orchid is usually greenish in colour and so is often quite hard to see even when you are close to it. It can have reddish hues as well so of the two growing quite close to each other, it was the dark red one which attracted our attention first. It is distributed widely throughout the British Isles and if anything is found more often in the north than the south. It is plentiful in Ireland.

It is also may be about to change its name in the medium term if clear evidence acrues.

Genetic work by Bateman (1997) has shown that this orchid belongs to the Dactylorhiza genus and so should be named Dactylorhiza viridis. Other DNA work has been published and disagreed with this conclusion so in the absence of unequivocal DNA evidence the original name remains.

Inchnadamph, Scotland 19th June 2006

Added on 23rd June 2006, updated 5th December 2008, updated 19th March 2010, updated 12th Oct 2014

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