Orchis mascula(L.) L.

Early Purple Orchid

WFO wfo-0000259601 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Orchis mascula, photographed by CorentinD
fig. a CorentinD, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-01 / obs. 202896943
Orchis mascula, photographed by Anne Thomson
fig. b Anne Thomson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203006540
Orchis mascula, photographed by Michal Honskus
fig. c Michal Honskus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201511970
Orchis mascula, photographed by Anne Thomson
fig. d Anne Thomson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202998658
Orchis mascula, photographed by Nicolás Tamargo
fig. e Nicolás Tamargo, CC0 1.0 / obs. 199907943
Orchis mascula, photographed by Emanuele Santarelli
fig. f Emanuele Santarelli, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 200351806
Orchis mascula, photographed by John Lyden
fig. g John Lyden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198793765
Orchis mascula, photographed by Paul Braun
fig. h Paul Braun, CC0 1.0 / obs. 199314889

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 3,334 observations

Peak flowering in May, from 3,334 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 104 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Androrchis ichnusae (Corrias) D.Tyteca & E.Klein
  • Androrchis langei (Lange ex K.Richt.) D.Tyteca & E.Klein
  • Androrchis mascula (L.) D.Tyteca & E.Klein
  • Androrchis mascula subsp. lapalmensis (Leibbach & Ruedi Peter) W.Foelsche & Jakely
  • Androrchis mascula subsp. longicalcarata (Akhalk., H.Baumann, R.Lorenz, Mosul. & Ruedi Peter) W.Foelsche & Jakely
  • Androrchis mascula subsp. maghrebiana (B.Baumann & H.Baumann) W.Foelsche & Jakely
  • Androrchis ovalis (F.W.Schmidt) D.Tyteca & E.Klein
  • Androrchis pinetorum (Boiss. & Kotschy) D.Tyteca & E.Klein
  • Androrchis scopulorum (Summerh.) D.Tyteca & E.Klein
  • Androrchis tenera (Landwehr) D.Tyteca & E.Klein
  • Orchidactyla kromayeri (M.Schulze) Borsos & Soó
  • Orchidactyla pentecostalis (Wettst. & Sennholz) Borsos & Soó
  • Orchidactyla speciosissima (Wettst. & Sennholz) Borsos & Soó
  • Orchis cochleata H.Fleischm. & M.Schulze
  • Orchis compressiflora Stokes
  • Orchis glaucophylla Kern.
  • Orchis hispanica A.Niesch. & C.Niesch.
  • Orchis ichnusae (Corrias) Devillers-Tersch. & Devillers
  • Orchis kromayeri M.Schulze
  • Orchis langei Lange ex K.Richt.
  • Orchis langei f. maquedina F.M.Vázquez
  • Orchis langei subsp. magrebensis F.M.Vázquez
  • Orchis lapalmensis (Leibbach & Ruedi Peter) P.Delforge
  • Orchis mascula f. acutiflora (W.D.J.Koch) A.Fuchs

and 80 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.