Dactylorhiza maculata -ryhmä

Perennial grass.

20–50 cm high.

The stem is simple, erect and filled with continuous pith.

The stem is foliate. The lamina of the 2–4 proximal leaves is obovate, obtuse and compressed, maculate on the adaxial side maculate and blueish gray on the abaxial side. The lamina of the distal leaves is small, narrow and acute. The uppermost leaf does not reach the base of the inflorescence. Proximal and distal leaves are in distinctly separate groups. The bracts are light in color, typically shorter than the flowers and serrate.

The root tubers are deeply lobed.

The inflorescence is a dense spike. The flowers zygomorphic. The labellum spurred, deflexed, broad, trilobate and the middle lobe shorter and narrower than the lateral lobes. The color of the flowers varies from nearly white to pink and purple-red, with mottled pattern.

The fruit is a capsule. The seeds minuscule, dust-like.