Garden Orchid

Epipactis palustris is a hardy, perennial terrestrial orchid native to Europe and Asia

Epipactis palustris is a perennial herbaceous orchid that grows from a horizontal rhizome, producing upright stems up to 60 cm tall with 5–10 erect, lance-shaped leaves, 10–12 cm long, featuring parallel venation
The plant produces one-sided racemes of 4–25 small flowers, typically brownish-purple on the inner petals and creamy-green on the outer petals, with a striking white labellum marked with red, yellow, or orange spots

Flowering occurs from late June to August, and the fruit is a many-ribbed capsule containing numerous tiny seeds

This orchid is native to central and northern Europe, the Caucasus, Turkey, northern Iran, and Central Asia

It favors neutral to highly calcareous soils, often in seasonally inundated marshes, fens, damp meadows, dune slacks, and abandoned gravel pits