''Ophrys sphegodes'', commonly known as the early spider-orchid,
is a species of sexually-deceptive
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 floweri ...
native to Europe and the Middle East. It is a very varied species with many subspecies recognised.
Description
Plant height varies with latitude. In the UK the maximum height is around 20 cm, but around the Mediterranean a height of 70 cm may be reached.
[First Nature - Ophrys sphegodes](_blank)
/ref> Flowers March–Maysepal
A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...
s and a velvety red-brown labellum with a distinctive silvery-blue H marking so that the flowers much resemble an arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...
and especially a spider.
Similar to ''Ophrys fuciflora
''Ophrys holosericea'', the late spider orchid, is a species of flowering plant in the family Orchidaceae, native to western and central Europe and the Mediterranean region. There has been considerable confusion about the identity of this species ...
'' and ''Ophrys apifera
''Ophrys apifera'', known in Europe as the bee orchid, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Orchidaceae. It serves as an example of sexually deceptive pollination and floral mimicry, as well as of a highly selective and highly evolved ...
'' but flowers differ in that late spider orchid and bee orchid have much smaller petals than sepals; in early spider orchid petals and sepals are a similar size. They are also distinguished by patches of colour on the labellum; late spider orchid has a yellow point at the centre of the distal end of the labellum, while bee orchid has a red patch at the proximal end of the labellum.
Distribution and habitat
Found on unimproved alkaline
In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a ...
meadows, woodland edges,[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families](_blank)
/ref>
In Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, it is restricted to parts of Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
, Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
, Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
and Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...
and is regarded as rare although where it is found it may be in stands of many hundreds of plants. It is classified as a British Red Data Book
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...
plant. Despite its apparent vulnerability, it has very successfully colonised the chalk spoil dumping grounds created near Dover at Samphire Hoe
Samphire Hoe is a country park situated west of Dover in Kent in southeast England. The park was created by using 4.9 million cubic metres of chalk marl from the Channel Tunnel excavations and is found at the bottom of a section of the White Cl ...
from the excavations of the Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover ...
. Worldwide, the IUCN conservation status of this species is least concern as of 2018.
Ecology
In the UK ''Ophrys sphegodes'' is pollinated by the miner bee ''Andrena
''Andrena'' is a genus of bees in the family Andrenidae. With over 1,500 species, it is one of the largest genera of animals. It is a strongly monophyletic group that is difficult to split into more manageable divisions; currently, ''Andrena'' is ...
nigroaenea'', a polylectic pollinator (i.e. one that visits many different species of flower), a bee species which requires dry sandy soils. Different subspecies have evolved to attract different pollinators.symbiotic
Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or para ...
relationships with a range of species of mycorrhizal fungi
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 pla ...
.
Taxonomy
''Ophrys'' comes from the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
for eyebrow, perhaps a reference to the velvety brown appearance of the labellum. ''Sphegodes'' comes from the Ancient Greek for wasp-like.The Names of Plants
/ref> This species was formerly called O. aranifera, meaning spider-carrying.
The genus ''Ophrys'' is the most species-rich (i.e. diverse) genus of orchids in Europe and the Mediterranean with over 200 species, according to 'Orchids of Britain and Europe' by Pierre Delforge.
Subspecies
Many subspecific and varietal names have been proposed. At the present time (May 2014), the following are recognized, one of them apparently originating as a hybrid between two of the others:
Photo gallery
Image:Ophrys sphegodes, Dover 1.JPG
Image:Image-Ophrys sphegodes, Dover 2.JPG
Image:Ophrys sphegodes, Folkestone 1.JPG
Image:Ophrys sphegodes plants.jpg
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q161476
sphegodes
Orchids of Europe
Orchids of France
Flora of Austria
Flora of Hungary
Flora of Switzerland
Flora of Albania
Flora of Bulgaria
Flora of Romania
Flora of Greece
Flora of Croatia
Flora of Serbia
Flora of Cyprus
Flora of Turkey
Flora of Iran
Flora of Syria
Flora of Palestine (region)
Plants described in 1768
Taxa named by Philip Miller