OPHRYS CALYPSUS
Family and Genus:- See- ORCHIDACEAE
Common Name:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:-
Meaning:- Meaning:- Ophrys (L) Eye-brow, a name used by the Roman naturalist
and philosopher Pliny.
Calypsus (Gr) Greek sea nymph Calypso, daughter of Titan
and an important character in Homer's Odyssey.
General description:-
Stem:-
1)
Leaves:-
1)
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, lax, with 2-7 flowers.
2) Sepals, pale rose to dark red and petals big, triangular-lanceolate, same colour
as the sepals, occasionally with auncles, touching and at times.
3) Lip, medium-sized, entire to slightly 3-lobed, similar to a massive sub-square,
with rather rounded sides at the base and the top and edges at times folded
under and at times spreading.
4) Horns, short (2-5 mm).
5) Peripheral pilosity, dense and long around the appendix, lax elsewhere.
6) Speculum, extended, complex, occasionally fragmented, border, white.
7) Appendix, rather small, horizontal, 3-toothed.
8) Stigmatic cavity, very small in relation to the lip.
9) Basal field, reddish with a two-coloured little collar, gray-violet and white-
yellowish.
10) Pseudo-eyes, grey-brown to black-brown.
Fruit:-
1)
Key features:-
1) Labellum, appears "plump" and rounded with a noticeably low slung waistline.
2) With a strongly recurved lip (with a yellow/orange margin) which will often form a
pleat at the back but more usually sits like a pair of half closed curtains.
3) It has long petals which are generally concolourous with the sepals and
importantly, contiguous at the base.
Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation, scrubland vegetation, meadows, open
woodland.
Distribution:- Endemic to Greece, and the Aegean Is. limited distribution on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mar-May.
Photos by:- A.N.Other
SPECIES DESCRIPTION