SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ANACAMPTIS SANCTA
Family:- ORCHIDACEAE
Common Names:- Holy Orchid
Synonyms:- Orchis coriophora ssp. sancta.
Meaning:- Anacamptis (Gr) Bent-back, reference to the long spur of the flower.
Sancta (L) Holy. The original description was based on a collection by
the Linnaean disciple Fredrik Hasselquist c. 1750 in the Holy Land, hence the
name.
General description:- Low to medium perennial.
Stem:- 15-45 cm, erect.
Leaves:-
1) Cauline, almost all sheath-like.
2) Lower leaves.
a) 5-15
b) ± withered at anthesis.
c) forming an indistinct rosette.
d) broadly linear.
e) unspotted.
Flowers:-
1) Bracts
a) membranous.
b) ochre-yellow.
c) larger than the ovary.
2) Inflorescence:
a) relatively lax.
b) cylinrical.
c) fairly large.
d) white-rosy to red or dark red.
e) almost odourless.
3) Dome:
a) longish
b) sharp with green shades.
4) Sepals
a) sharp.
b) asymetrical
5) Petals, linear-lanceolate
6) Lip:
a) small to medium.
b) unspotted.
c) 3 lobed.
d) base, constricted with 2 prominances.
e) angular, with a channel in-between, which frame the entrance of the spur
7) Lobes:
a) lateral, rhomboidal, dentate.
b) middle, oblong-lanceolate.
8) Spur, arculate, leaning downward and forward
Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation, dry grassland, open woodland, roadsides,
0-500(-850) m.
Distribution:- In Greece not recorded outside the Aegean area. - Also in S
Anatolia, Cyprus, W Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Rare on Crete currently known
from only three locations, (see map).
Flowering time:- Late April to mid-June (later than most other orchids in the area
and then often conspicuous in dry grassland).
Photos by:-
FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS
ORCHIDACEAE
General description:- Perennial herbs with rhizomes, vertical stock or tuberous
roots, terrestrial, sometimes obtaining nutrition from decaying matter (saprophytic),
usually with symbiotic fungi in or on the roots (mycorrhiza).
Stems:- Sometimes swollen at base to form pseudobulbs.
Leaves:- Entire, spirally arranged or in two opposite rows, one on each side of the
stem (distichous), rarely subopposite, reduced to scales or sheaths in saprophytes.
Flowers:- Inflorescence a spike or raceme. Flowers zygomorphic, the sepals,
petals and stamens apparently inserted higher than the ovary (epigynous), usually
hermaphrodite. Perianth-segments 6, in 2 whorls; median inner segment (labellum)
usually larger and of different shape from the others, usually directed downwards
owing to the ovary or the stem (pedicel) twisting through 180°, often with basal spur.
Anthers and stigma borne on a column formed from fused filaments and style;
stamens 1, rarely 2, with stalkless (sessile) or short-stalked (subsessile), 2-celled
(2-locular) anthers behind or at the summit of the column; pollen-grains single or in
tetrads, bound by elastic threads in packets (pollinia) which may be narrowed into a
sterile, stalk-like caudicle. Ovary inferior, 1-locular, with parietal placentation, rarely
3-locular; stigmas 3, all fertile, or with the median sterile and often consisting of a
beak-like process (rostellum) between the anthers and fertile stigmas; rostellum
often forming 1 or 2 viscid bodies (viscidia) to which the pollinia are attached;
viscidia sometimes enclosed in 1(2), simple or 2-lobed, membranous, pocket-like
outgrowths (bursicles) of the rostellum.
Fruit:- A capsule, splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscing) by 3 or 6
longitudinal slits; seeds numerous, minute, with undifferentiated embryo and no
endosperm.
ANACAMPTIS
Tubers:- Usually 2, ovoid or subglobose, entire.
Stem:- With numerous leaves.
Flowers:- In a dense spike. Outer lateral perianth-segments patent, the outer
median connivent with the inner lateral to form a galea. Labellum deeply 3-lobed,
with 2 longitudinal ridges at the base. Spur long, directed downwards. Column
short. Rostellum small. Viscidium solitary, transversely elongate, bearing 2 pollinia;
bursicle simple.
Key features:-
1) Labellum deeply 3-lobed, with 2 longitudinal ridges at base.
2) Tubers entire.
