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Red helleborine

Cephalanthera rubra

Red helleborine
Photo: Olivier Pichard, CC BY-SA 3.0

Red helleborine is a terrestrial woodland orchid of Europe, North Africa and southwest Asia, rare in Britain. It is a wild species that is not usually grown in gardens, and it depends on calcareous soil and shaded woodland conditions.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade, Shade
Water
Keeps soil evenly moist in its woodland habitat; it does not tolerate waterlogging.
Soil
Calcareous, alkaline to neutral woodland soil (pH about 5.9 to 8.2).
Temperature
Hardy to cold temperate winters; suited to cool, temperate climates up to about 60 degrees north.
How easy
Hard
Native range
Europe to W. Syria and Turkmenistan, Morocco to N. Algeria
Climate
temperate

About

Cephalanthera rubra, known as red helleborine, is an orchid found in Europe, North Africa and southwest Asia. Although reasonably common in parts of its range, this Cephalanthera has always been one of the rarest orchids in Britain.

Where it grows

The red helleborine is found throughout most of Europe, east to the Urals and as far as 60 degrees north. It is however rare in Britain, the Low Countries and western France. It also occurs in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and in various parts of southern Asia as far east as Iran.

Other Cephalanthera plants

Phantom orchid · White helleborine · Erect Cephalanthera · Golden Orchid · Sword-leaved helleborine · Phantom Orchid

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cephalanthera rubra by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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