Cephalanthera rubra, punavalkku
This is the best protected orchid in Finland. The few place where it grows are in areas arounf Lohja. All of them are secret and are only shown to a people with license. That´s why it is extremely difficult to find this orchid from Finland, none of us still have. For Finnish it is easies to find this species from Gotland or Saaremaa. It is also common in some areas in Middle-Europe.The plant is protected by law, of course.
Hiding is part of the lifestyle of this species. It can stay under ground
for years, even more than 10 years, without any leaf appearing on ground
and then it may suddenly flower. The flowers are one of the showiest in
orchid family. The stem and leaves look lot like ones of C. longifolia,
and without flowers they are hard to tell apart - exept in Finland, where
they grow in very different areas. 
Who finds this species is very lucky. In some years few new growing-sites are found in some years, but it can´t be very common in the area.
Does anyone have a photo of this species?
