Marsh Helleborine

Common Name: Marsh Helleborine

Latin Name: Epipactis palustris

Family: Orchidaceae

The marsh helleborine is a native wild orchid. It is one of about 50 wild orchid species in the British Isles and approximately 19,000 orchid species currently known to science worldwide. The latin species name palustris means marsh and refers to the habitat inwhich this species can be found.

In the British Isles marsh heleborines occur on fens, base-rich marshy fields and sand dune-slacks from northern England to central Scotland but is now extinct from many formerly occupied inland sites.

In the Yorkshire Dales National Park this stunning orchid is a very rare, but it can still be found on some calcareous flushes and mires in flower between July and September.