Gymnadenia is a genus of flowering plants in the orchid family (Orchidaceae) containing 22 terrestrial species.

They can be found in damp meadows, fens and marshes, and on chalk or limestone, often in alpine regions of Europe and Asia from Portugal to Kamchatka, including China, Japan, Mongolia, Siberia, the Himalayas, Iran, Ukraine, Germany, Scandinavia, Great Britain, etc.

[2][3][4] The fragrant orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) has been introduced into the USA and is reportedly naturalized in Connecticut.

It is recently discovered that eugenol and isoeugenol, floral volatile scent compounds, are catalyzed by single type of enzyme in Gymnadenia species and gene encoding for this enzyme is first functionally characterized gene in this species so far.

Gymnadenia is the title of a novel published in 1929 in Norwegian by Nobel Prize winning author Sigrid Undset.