Family: cuckoo orchids (Orchidaceae)
Flowering time: May–July
Size: 25–60 cm
Habitat: forests, forest edges, glades and shrubby slopes
Slender stem of the common hooded cuckoo orchid (Traunsteinera globosa) is leafy with four to six narrow-lanceolate leaves, which become smaller toward the top of the stem. Bluish-green leaves are erect and often fit the stem completely. At the top of the stem develops a single, oblate to broadly egg-shaped, many-flowered inflorescence. The dense inflorescence is formed by numerous light pink flowers, in which all five petals are turned in the same direction. The lower petal – the labellum – is trilobed and decorated with darker spots. The other petals are distinctly long-acuminate, their tips beak-shaped and expanded. On the rear part of the flower there is a downward-curved spur, up to 4 mm long. The common hooded cuckoo orchid grows on moist, nitrogen-poor (lean) soils on calcareous substrates at higher elevations.
In Slovenia it is widely distributed, except in the northeast of the country, but it is not common. In Slovenia it is protected and listed on the Red List of endangered plants.
