Studying a marsh with about 2,000 Broad-Leaved Marsh Orchids (Dactylorhiza majalis) at the Southern edge of the Rhoen region in Germany I saw a group of three albiflora plants together with Menyanthes trifoliata, Caltha palustris and other marsh plants. Even more interesting was another albiflora plant in a distance of about 40 meters with an orchid in its direct neighbourhood showing a kind of partial albiflora: Most of its flowers have the standard purple colour but some flowers are partly purple, partly white – either in the lip or in the petals.
Obviously, the genetic allele containing information for the albiflora form has plaid a certain role for this plant – but it was dominated by the DNA, which contains the information for the standard colour. This observation as well as a similar one in Southern France with Anacamptis morio poses questions about the recessive character of the albiflora allele. There might be some cases where the albiflora allele of one parent plant is not totally restrained by the dominant purple allele of the other parent plant which results in such purple and white spotted flowers. Before I continued the trip to a charming meadow with hundreds of Anacamptis morio (among them two albiflora) and Orchis mascula I made use of the rising morning sun to make some more photos of the Dactylorhiza majalis f. albiflora trio: 