Chamorchis alpina(L.) Rich.

Alpine Chamorchis

WFO wfo-0000840547 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Chamorchis alpina, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. a Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-09-20 / obs. 107591218
Chamorchis alpina, photographed by Felicia Seichter
fig. b Felicia Seichter, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 96216703
Chamorchis alpina, photographed by Konsta Happonen
fig. c Konsta Happonen, CC0 1.0 / obs. 148247275
Chamorchis alpina, photographed by Michael Haag
fig. d Michael Haag, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143215583
Chamorchis alpina, photographed by Karsten Rohweder
fig. e Karsten Rohweder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 86826406
Chamorchis alpina, photographed by Karsten Rohweder
fig. f Karsten Rohweder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 51939406
Chamorchis alpina, photographed by Thibaud Aronson
fig. g Thibaud Aronson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 27491752
Chamorchis alpina, photographed by Michael D. Pirie
fig. h Michael D. Pirie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154946946

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.

Native range 13 botanical countries

Regions where Chamorchis alpina is native: Austria, Czechia-Slovakia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, North European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland AustriaCzechia-SlovakiaFinlandFranceGermanyItalyNorth European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSwedenSwitzerland
Native distribution of Chamorchis alpina, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Austria AUT EUROPE
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Italy ITA
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 601 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -18.0 °C -13.3 °C -9.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 12.0 °C 14.1 °C 17.9 °C
Annual rainfall 925 mm 1,728 mm 2,688 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 143 mm 307 mm 505 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 601 research-grade observations of Chamorchis alpina that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 10 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.

  • Aceras alpinum (L.) Steud.
  • Arachnites alpina (L.) F.W.Schmidt
  • Chamaerepes alpina (L.) Spreng.
  • Epipactis alpina (L.) Schrank
  • Herminium alpinum (L.) Sweet
  • Herminium alpinum (L.) Lindl.
  • Ophrys alpina L.
  • Orchis alpina (L.) Scop.
  • Orchis graminea Crantz
  • Satyrium alpinum (L.) Pers.

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.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

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