Leopard Marsh Orchid

I try to keep my eyes open for new things. So we were walking to the

car at my wife's work and I saw this, and three others like it, in

amongst the hawkweed. She recognised it as an orchid but other than

that we were stuck for a name. I looked it up when we got home and

saw that it is a European Marsh Orchid; later a friend, a botanist,

told me it is more specifically a Leopard Marsh Orchid (based on its

spotted leaves). Nice. They are fairly rare, but it seems they are

spreading. And thus I find them on the grassy verge of a big parking

lot.



The battery had died in the digital camera I was carrying and so I

used my telephone. Not bad close-up stuff. The orchid is about 15 cm

(six inches) high.