Some wild orchids of Germany
 

Come with me on a walk through open grasslands and forests in late spring and early summer. Orobanche are saprophytic plants and not orchids, even if they may look like. Thus they can grow in dark forests. Interestingly Melampyrum is semi-saprophytic and belongs to the Orobanchaceae.
And for the Orchis and/or Dactylorhiza I cannot remember the exact classification.

We walk on

into the forest

Beautiful!

Wow, beautiful flowers! Thank you for sharing.

I wouldn't have guessed that Melampyrum nemorosum is the same family as Orobanche! They look so different. Does Melampyrum nemorosum has two kinds of flowers (blue on the top and yellow)?

Ooo! Beautiful!

The flowers of Melampyrum are yellow. The blue leaves on top are bracts.

Oh my gosh, I'd love to go on an orchid filled nature walk! Too wonderful!

---------- Post added at 03:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:42 PM ----------

This got me thinking that I will conduct a search of our own wild orchids here in New Mexico. There are about 35 types.

Amazing, this reminds me childhood, who knew we had so many orchids growing in Czech in wild, when I was a kid, I did pass them, though they are strange and pretty but never did connect it to orchids, nowadays with all the knowledgeable I would enjoy them so much more! Thanks for sharing these!

This is one of the benefits I got when joining our local group. They guided me to places I never knew, they knew exactly when to go, and often rangers gave explanations not only for orchids, also for the origination process in earth's history and much more.