Epipactis atrorubens(Hoffm.) Besser

Royal helleborineroyal helleborine

WFO wfo-0000951957 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Epipactis atrorubens, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. a Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-02 / obs. 202770395
Epipactis atrorubens, photographed by kfa
fig. b kfa, CC0 1.0 / obs. 154148237
Epipactis atrorubens, photographed by kfa
fig. c kfa, CC0 1.0 / obs. 154148005
Epipactis atrorubens, photographed by Dario Taraborelli
fig. d Dario Taraborelli, CC0 1.0 / obs. 149237906
Epipactis atrorubens, photographed by Emanuele Santarelli
fig. e Emanuele Santarelli, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 149260549
Epipactis atrorubens, photographed by Dario Taraborelli
fig. f Dario Taraborelli, CC0 1.0 / obs. 148486101
Epipactis atrorubens, photographed by Dario Taraborelli
fig. g Dario Taraborelli, CC0 1.0 / obs. 148486226
Epipactis atrorubens, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. h Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 147861947

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 35 botanical countries

Regions where Epipactis atrorubens is native: Kazakhstan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, West Siberia, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine KazakhstanNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusWest SiberiaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Epipactis atrorubens, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Kazakhstan KAZ ASIA-TEMPERATE
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
West Siberia WSB

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 609 in flower of 702 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Epipactis atrorubens observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 609 of 702 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 88 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.

  • Amesia atropurpurea (Raf.) A.Nelson & J.F.Macbr.
  • Amesia rubiginosa (Crantz) Mousley
  • Epipactis atropurpurea Raf.
  • Epipactis atropurpurea f. pallens Beckh.
  • Epipactis atropurpurea subvar. lutescens (Coss. & Germ.) Rouy
  • Epipactis atropurpurea subvar. virescens Rouy
  • Epipactis atropurpurea var. leviconica Engenst.
  • Epipactis atropurpurea var. longibracteata Bordz.
  • Epipactis atropurpurea var. majoriflora Bordz.
  • Epipactis atrorubens f. angustifolia Snarskis
  • Epipactis atrorubens f. latifolia (Tocl) Soó
  • Epipactis atrorubens f. longibracteata (Bordz.) Soó
  • Epipactis atrorubens f. majoriflora (Bordz.) Soó
  • Epipactis atrorubens f. orbicularis (Zapał.) Soó
  • Epipactis atrorubens f. pallens (Beckh.) Hyl.
  • Epipactis atrorubens f. sirneensis Neirynck
  • Epipactis atrorubens subsp. borbasii Soó
  • Epipactis atrorubens subsp. danubialis (Robatsch & Rydlo) Ciocârlan & R.Rösler
  • Epipactis atrorubens subsp. spiridonovii (Devillers-Tersch. & Devillers) Kreutz
  • Epipactis atrorubens subsp. subclausa (Robatsch) Kreutz
  • Epipactis atrorubens subsp. triploidea Gelbr. & G.Hamel
  • Epipactis atrorubens subvar. albiflora E.G.Camus
  • Epipactis atrorubens subvar. borbasii (Soó) E.G.Camus
  • Epipactis atrorubens subvar. lutescens (Coss. & Germ.) E.G.Camus

and 64 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.
  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.