Family: orchids (Orchidaceae)
Flowering time: June
Size: 15–25 cm
Habitat: low bogs, headwaters
Lapland fingered orchid (Dactylorhiza lapponica) is a small and slender orchid with a hollow stem. It has 3 to 4 lanceolate leaves, which are generally dark-spotted. The longest leaves are shorter than 8 cm, and all are less than 1.5 cm wide. The inflorescence is short, it typically bears 5 to 15 fairly small scarlet-red flowers. Its honey-coloured lip is 5 to 8 mm long. It grows on permanently waterlogged bog soils in the montane belt, i.e., somewhere between about 700 m above sea level and the forest boundary. In Slovenia this species is protected, but the Slovenian Red List of endangered plants does not include it.
Because this is a relatively rare species, which grows in sensitive and locally rare habitats here, it would also be reasonable to classify the Lapland fingered orchid into one of the Red List categories.
