Narrow-leaved helleborine
Cephalanthera longifolia
Family · Orchidaceae · Harmless
The white orchid of woodland shade, upright and elegant, with flowers that never fully open and stay like a half-open cup. It is one of the few orchids of closed woodland.
Oak woods · Uplands · Pine woods
Also known assword-leaved helleborine
How to tell it
An upright stem thirty to sixty centimetres with narrow, long, pointed leaves set in two ranks along the stem, like blades. Pure white flowers, three to twenty, always half closed, with a yellow patch inside the lip. No visible spur.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
None
It indicates mature, little disturbed woodland, and its presence says more about the health of an oak wood than almost any other plant.
The law says
Protected by CITES and national law, like all wild orchids. Photograph it, do not pick it or dig up the tuber.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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