''Ophrys insectifera'', the fly orchid, is a species of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

and the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

of the genus ''

Ophrys The genus ''Ophrys'' is a large group of orchids from the alliance Orchis in the subtribe Orchidinae. They are widespread across much of Europe, North Africa, Caucasus, the Canary Islands, and the Middle East as far east as Turkmenistan. These ...

''. It is remarkable as an example of the use of sexually deceptive pollination and floral mimicry, as well as a highly selective and highly evolved plant–pollinator relationship.

Description

''Ophrys insectifera'' is a tuberous perennial, reaching in height, which flowers across its range from May to July.BSBI Species Account - Ophrys insectifera
/ref> It is a slender plant, with narrow upright leaves. A flower spike may carry 1-10 flowers, which have yellow-green sepals, very reduced, dark brown/black petals resembling the antennae of an insect and a long, narrow, lobed labellum, which is dark in color, varying from maroon to black and on which there are two glossy depressions known as 'pseudo-eyes' as well as an iridescent blue/grey patch evolved to resemble an insect's glistening wings. There is a rare yellow-flowered form of ''O. insectifera''.First Nature - Ophrys insectifera
/ref> Chromosomes 2n=36

Taxonomy

The genus name "''Ophrys''" derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word "ophrys", meaning eyebrow, while the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

epithet "insectifera" means insect-bearing or insect-carrying, referring to the unusual appearance of the flowers.

Distribution and habitat

It is native to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, growing further north than most other species in the genus ''

'', in Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic states, and as far south as Greece and Spain. In the UK it is a rare species, with a southern distribution. The plant favours sites with damp, alkaline, unimproved soil. It can be found growing in beech woodlands, on forest edges, in scrub, on limestone pavement, limestone grassland, in chalk pits and wet meadows, on cliffs as well as on disused railways.

Ecology

The name arises because its

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

resembles a fly, although it relies on Hymenoptera for pollination. In the UK ''O. insectifera'' is pollinated by just two species of digger wasp: '' Argogorytes mystaceus'' and ''Argogorytes fargeii''. The orchid uses scent to attract male wasps which

pollinate Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, a ...

the flowers as they attempt to mate with them. The

scent An odor (American English) or odour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and animals can perceive via their sense ...

released by the flowers

mimic MIMIC, known in capitalized form only, is a former simulation computer language developed 1964 by H. E. Petersen, F. J. Sansom and L. M. Warshawsky of Systems Engineering Group within the Air Force Materiel Command at the Wright-Patterson AFB in ...

female sexual

pheromone A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

s. Both of the wasp species which pollinate fly orchids in the UK feed on

Umbellifer Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus '' Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plant ...

flowers as adults and on

froghopper The froghoppers, or the superfamily Cercopoidea, are a group of hemipteran insects in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. Adults are capable of jumping many times their height and length, giving the group their common name, but they are best known ...

nymphs as larvae. ''A. mystaceus'' reproduces in woodland glades, while ''A. fargeii'' reproduces in open, sparsely-vegetated habitats. Like most orchids, ''Ophrys insectifera'' depends upon a relationship with a

mycorrhizal fungus A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. mycorrhizae, mycorrhiza or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant ...

in the soil around its roots. In experiments it has been found to grow in association with fungi in the

Tulasnellaceae The Tulasnellaceae are a family of fungi in the order Cantharellales. The family comprises mainly effused (patch-forming) fungi formerly referred to the " jelly fungi" or heterobasidiomycetes. Species are wood- or litter-rotting saprotrophs, but ...

family. Due to the importance of this mycorrhizal partnership,

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

are particularly vulnerable to fungicide, but also other chemicals which could impact the growth of soil fungi or cause different fungi/bacteria species to dominate the soil they grow in.

Conservation

Worldwide, this species is considered 'least concern', however in Great Britain its conservation status is 'vulnerable'.Plant Life - Fly Orchid
/ref> This species is mainly threatened by habitat destruction, which takes several forms: drainage of fens, coniferization of woodland and decline in coppicing of woodland. As it has a very specialized relationship with its pollinators it is also theorized to be particularly vulnerable to climate-change. Image:Ophrys insectifera - Niitvälja2-crop.jpg, A close-up of the flower, clearly showing the iridescent pseudo-wings, pseudoa-ntennae, and pseudo-eyes Image:Ophrys insectifera infructescence - Niitvälja bog.jpg, Infructescence Image:Ophrys insectifera habit.jpg, Habit of an individual of ''Ophrys insectifera'' at the Altendorfer Berg in Niedersachsen, Germany Image:Ophrys_insectifera_Saarland_05.jpg, an unusual colour variation, photographed in

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

, Germany

References

External links

*
Den virtuella floran - DistributionJ. Claessens, J. Kleynen: ''European orchids'' - ''Argogorytes mystaceus'' pollinator of ''Ophrys insectifera''
{{Authority control insectifera Orchids of Europe Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus