- Lifespan
- Perennial; individual plants typically persist for several years, with underground tubers surviving dormancy
- Size & Weight
- 15–40 cm tall; flowers approximately 10–15 mm across
- Habitat
- Dry grasslands, limestone and chalk meadows, coastal cliffs, and disturbed ground with well-drained calcareous soils.
- UK Distribution
- Scattered throughout southern England, particularly common in the Cotswolds, Sussex, Kent, and southern coastal counties; rare in the north and absent from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- Diet
- As a flowering plant, it obtains nutrients through photosynthesis and absorbs minerals and water via its underground tubers and roots.
- Predators
- Rabbits, deer, and slugs may graze on flowers and foliage; seed predation by invertebrates occurs.
- Mating Season
- May to July (flowering period)
- Breeding
- Produces numerous tiny seeds (up to 10,000 per capsule) dispersed by wind; pollination primarily by male bees attempting to mate with the flower's bee-like labellum.
- Behaviour
- The Bee Orchid exhibits remarkable mimicry, with its lower petal (labellum) closely resembling a female bee in appearance and scent, attracting male bees for pseudo-copulation. This self-pollination mechanism is highly effective but the orchid also reproduces asexually via tuber division.