Orchis militarisL.

Military orchid

WFO wfo-0000259650 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Orchis militaris, photographed by evgeniq_benihanov
fig. a evgeniq_benihanov, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205730791
Orchis militaris, photographed by Нурхайдарова Татьяна
fig. b Нурхайдарова Татьяна, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203430289
Orchis militaris, photographed by CorentinD
fig. c CorentinD, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202903197
Orchis militaris, photographed by Emanuele Santarelli
fig. d Emanuele Santarelli, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 202649177
Orchis militaris, photographed by Elias
fig. e Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200188910
Orchis militaris, photographed by Norrland
fig. f Norrland, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201824418
Orchis militaris, photographed by Elias
fig. g Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200184985
Orchis militaris, photographed by Andreas Stiller
fig. h Andreas Stiller, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199636044

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 43 botanical countries

Regions where Orchis militaris is native: Afghanistan, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Iran, Irkutsk, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AfghanistanAltayBuryatiyaChitaIranIrkutskKazakhstanKrasnoyarskMongoliaNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Orchis militaris, 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
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
Buryatiya BRY
Chita CTA
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Kazakhstan KAZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK

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 1,440 in flower of 1,537 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Orchis militaris 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. 1,440 of 1,537 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 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 44 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.

  • Orchis cinerea Schrank
  • Orchis galeata Poir.
  • Orchis militaris f. acuminata A.Camus
  • Orchis militaris f. angustiloba Leimbach
  • Orchis militaris f. angustissima W.Zimm.
  • Orchis militaris f. arenaria Schur
  • Orchis militaris f. intercedens Beck
  • Orchis militaris f. longibracteata Schur
  • Orchis militaris f. minor Gaudin
  • Orchis militaris f. platyloba W.Zimm.
  • Orchis militaris f. raddeana (Regel) Boiss.
  • Orchis militaris f. sibirica Schltr.
  • Orchis militaris f. stenoloba Döll
  • Orchis militaris subsp. galeata (Poir.) Bonnier & Layens
  • Orchis militaris subsp. major Ehrh.
  • Orchis militaris var. berdaui Zapał.
  • Orchis militaris var. galeata (Poir.) Lindl.
  • Orchis militaris var. intercedens Beck
  • Orchis militaris var. lactea Gaudin
  • Orchis militaris var. nervata (Marchand) Nyman
  • Orchis militaris var. nervata (Marchand) Tinant
  • Orchis militaris var. perplexa Beck
  • Orchis militaris var. perplexans Beck
  • Orchis militaris var. spathulata Cortesi

and 20 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.