Heath Spotted Orchid (dactylorhiza maculata) #wildorchids #nativeplants #herbs #foraging #moorland

[00:00:00]This is the heath spotted orchid. And it's got really nice kind of round light pink flowers. You do get some color variations. They get what about 6 in tall, 8 in tall. And it grows on heathland and it likes kind of damp peaty areas of heathland like this. And it has this enormous range where it grows all the way from Siberia across northern Asia and Europe. And as far over as the British Isles, it goes right up into Scotland and Wales and also grows as far south into the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and Algeria.

[00:00:41]And this plant is notoriously difficult to cultivate. Although the tubers can be planted in October, they have to establish a fungal network with a soil fungus.

[00:00:55]And so it is advised to plant them in an established meadow. And they do quite like acidic boggy and peaty Now this plant, although it's not really common, so it's not good to kind of pick any.

[00:01:09]The root tubers have been used for making into medicine. You boil them in water or milk and they're good for gastrointestinal disorders and dysentery. And in the past they were used to increase fertility.

[00:01:26]So yeah, there's kind of a lot that orchids that look similar to this one.

[00:01:31]But they do different ones in different parts of the moors usually. And these ones have little spotted leaves as well.

[00:01:36]They look really nice. And they spread into little clumps. And they seem to be like everywhere. This year is a very good year for them. But I've noticed they get quite a bit of increase in them every year. They seem to love this kind of gorsy environment, bit boggy, like open heathland. And they look fantastic. There's so many flowers on there stem and there's just such a good density of them. They'd look really amazing. There's like a white one there.

[00:02:04]You get sort of white ones and different kind of usually light pink but you get a few kind of darker pink and a few white ones. There's still loads coming up and coming out so they do go on for quite a long time and once you notice one you know you notice like loads and loads of them but yeah they are gorgeous.