''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. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

native to Europe and the Middle East. It is a highly 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
/ref> Flowers March–May (April–May in northern latitudes). Each shoot may carry between 2 and 18 flowers. The flowers have yellow-green

sepal 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 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s and a velvety red-brown labellum with a distinctive silvery-blue H marking so that the flowers much resemble an

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

and especially a spider. Similar to '' Ophrys fuciflora'' and ''

Ophrys apifera ''Ophrys apifera'', known in Europe as the bee orchid, is a perennial plant, perennial herbaceous plant of the genus ''Ophrys'', in the family of Orchidaceae. It serves as an example of Sexual mimicry#Interspecific deceptive mimicry, sexually d ...

'' 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 the Arabic word , ) is a basic 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 soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The ...

meadows, woodland edges, as well as slopes, banks and waste land. It is widespread across most of Europe and the middle East from Britain south to Portugal and east to Iran.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> In

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

, it is restricted to parts of

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, Hampshire,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

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 an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological spe ...

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 (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

. 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 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. This orchid species is able to form

symbiotic Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biolo ...

relationships with a range of species of

mycorrhizal fungi A mycorrhiza (; , 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's rhizosphere, the plant root system and its surroundings. Mycorrhizae play ...

Taxonomy

''Ophrys'' comes from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

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: *''Ophrys sphegodes'' nothosubsp. ''jeanpertii'' (E.G.Camus) Del Prete & Conte – France, Spain, Balkans ''(O. sphegodes ''subsp''. araneola × O. sphegodes ''subsp''. sphegodes)'' *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''aesculapii'' (Renz) Soó ex J.J.Wood – Greece *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''araneola'' (Rchb.) M.Laínz – Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''atrata'' (Rchb.f.) A.Bolòs – from Portugal to Serbia *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''aveyronensis'' J.J.Wood – France, Spain *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''catalcana'' Kreutz – European Turkey *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''cretensis'' H.Baumann & Künkele – Crete and other Greek islands *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''epirotica'' (Renz) Gölz & H.R.Reinhard – Albania, Greece *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''gortynia'' H.Baumann & Künkele – Crete and other Greek islands *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''helenae'' (Renz) Soó & D.M.Moore – Albania, Greece *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''mammosa'' (Desf.) Soó ex E.Nelson – from the Balkans to Turkmenistan *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''melitensis'' (Nyman) E.Nelson – the Maltese islands *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''passionis'' (Sennen) Sanz & Nuet – France, Spain, Sardinia, Sicily, mainland Italy *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''sipontensis'' (R.Lorenz & Gembardt) H.A.Pedersen & Faurh. – Puglia *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''sphegodes'' – from Britain and Spain to Hungary and the Balkans *''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''spruneri'' (Nyman) E.Nelson – Crete and other Greek islands * ''Ophrys sphegodes'' subsp. ''taurica'' (Aggeenko) Soó ex Niketic & Djordjevic *''Ophrys sphegodes'' var. ''transhyrcana'' (Czerniak.) P.J.Cribb

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 Orchids of Lebanon