Anacamptis pyramidalis are Purple orchids

I remember my first encounter with a Pyramidal orchid on a nature walk at Primary school. I identified it with the help of an I-Spy Wildflowers book and a teacher.

The flowers can be seen in early summer in the UK and are relatively common. The bright magenta purple colour makes them quite easy to spot. They are about 25cm high and can often be found in long grass. For me, the identifying feature is the distinctive cone shaped flower head. There is a lack of markings on the flowers and leaves.

Pyramidal orchids in Sussex

The one photographed below was spotted on a guided Eastbourne walk and was about a hundred metres from a pale bee orchid.

The main page photo and the one below are of a beautiful showing of Pyramidal orchids in June in the Last Meadow in Seaford. I counted about 400 flower heads there on one day in 2021. The photos show the characteristic orchid floret shape and stems and lack of floret markings.

I’m going to assume that these orchids below are a paler colour variation of Pyramidal orchids. They were in amongst the darker ones in the Last Meadow and have the same form and lack of markings. If you know different, do comment at the bottom of the page!

There was another fab display of Anacamptis in Cradle Valley Seaford in a beautiful wildflower meadow in July. The meadow is natural and not sown as far as I know. The yellow flower is Lady’s bedstraw, Galium verum.

Blog posts mentioning Pyramidal orchids – Anacamptis pyramidalis are tagged Pyramidal or Anacamptis

https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/tag/anacamptis/

https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/tag/pyramidal

2021 was a particularly good year for orchids in my neck of the woods!

More about Orchids in general