Grows to 60 cm and has 3 to 5 narrow-oblong basal leaves, often with purple blotches. The stem is often purplish with several sheathing leaves in the lower half. Flowers purple with an unpleasant smell, the lateral sepals spreading upwards like ‘wings’, the upper sepal and petals forming a hood.

Deciduous woodland, Dunes etc.

April to June.

Perennial.

Widespread throughout most of Britain, and can be locally frequent.

Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 30 of the 617 tetrads.