Common Spotted Orchid - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

D. fuchsii is a Eurosiberian species occurring over Europe from Ireland in the West eastwards to Mongolia, the Altai Mountains and across Northern Asia. It is sympatric with Dactylorhiza maculata. Typical habitats are, variously across the range, conifer, beech and chestnut forests, moderately wet meadows, bogs and margins of streams. The preferred substrate is supposedly calcareous although it seems not to be particularly linked to this type of substrate. In mountain, subalpine and alpine ecosystems D. fuchsii is found from 900 to 2300 m above sea level.Elswhere it is found from sealevel. The full list of areas (World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions) for D. fuchsii is Finland, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, Italy. Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Xinjiang, Mongolia.

In Italy this plant is found mainly in the Alps in the northern Apennines.

In Britain it is widespread, occurring from alkaline marshes to chalk downland. The most common orchid in Britain. After the Bee Orchid, it is the most successful orchid coloniser of waste land.