OPHRYS CRETENSIS

Family:- ORCHIDACEAE

Common Names:- Cretan ophrys

Synonyms:- Ophrys sphegodes ssp. cretensis

Meaning:- Ophrys (L) Eye-brow, a name used by the Roman naturalist and

philosopher Pliny.

Cretensis (L) From Crete, Cretan.

General description:- Multi-flowered short to medium perennial, rarely more than

45cm. tall.

Leaves:- Basal leaves oval to lance-shaped, blunt, the stem leaves narrower and

pointed, sheathing.

Flowers:- The inflorescence is sparse with 2-10 small flowers. The sepals are

elongated, green in colour and 9-10 mm. in size. the petals are triangular, green or

greenish-yellow in colour and measure 6-7 mm. The lip is in one piece, its shape

varying from rounded to triangular, and measuring 8-10 mm. Its colour varies from

dark brown to dark reddish-brown with two out-growths on its base which are,

however, very small, sometimes almost non-existant. The blazon is shaped like an

"H", colour varying from Iight-blue to silver grey and bordered in white. The rest of

the lip is small and green. The general appearance of the flower resembles a

spider. The stigmatic cavity is rounded, dark reddish-brown in colour with a dividing

band in a lighter colour. The pseudo-eyes are shiny black.

Fruit:-

Key features:-

Habitat:- Scrubland vegetation, mixed scrub, in open woodland, meadows. 0-800

(-1100) m.

Distribution:- Endemic Crete & Kyklades. Fairy widely scattered across Crete,

but not too common.

Flowering time:- Mar to early June, peaking Apr-May.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton

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.

OPHRYS

General description:- Tubers 2(-3), globose or ovoid, entire.

Leaves:- Usually in a basal rosette, sometimes also present on stem.

Flowers:- Perianth-segments more or less spreading (patent), unequal; outer

oblong or ovate, obtuse; inner lateral smaller, often hairy.The lowest petal

(labellum) entire to 3-lobed, often convex and pouch-like (gibbous), sometimes

with an apical appendage which is often deflexed, hairless (glabrous) or velvety

(velutinous), variably marked, with usually glabrous central area (speculum); spur

absent. Rostellum minute. Viscidia in 2 simple bursicles.

Key features:-

1) Labellum neither inflated nor slipper-shaped; with distinctively coloured and

shaped central area (speculum).

Many species of Ophrys can cross to produce hybrids, which are often fertile.