Sawfly orchid
Ophrys tenthredinifera
Family · Orchidaceae · Harmless
The showiest of our bee orchids: broad bright pink sepals behind a velvety brown lip fringed with yellow hairs and a tuft at the tip.
Scrubland · Fields and pasture · Pine woods · Uplands
Also known aspink sawfly orchid
How to tell it
Three broad, spreading carmine-pink sepals, which tell it from every other in the genus at a distance. A square brown velvety lip with a yellow rim of short hairs and a small upturned appendage at the tip. A spike of two to eight flowers.
What it is confused with
Bee orchid
Ophrys apifera
Both have pink sepals. Bee orchid's lip is round and bulging with an appendage folded back and hidden; this one's lip is square, flat, with a clearly visible upturned appendage.
What it is for
None
Like all in the genus, it mimics the body and scent of a female hymenopteran to deceive the males, which pollinate it while trying to mate with the flower.
The law says
Protected by CITES and national law, like all wild orchids. Photograph it, do not pick it or dig up the tuber.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
No approved contributions for this entry yet.
Nothing appears here without a person reading it first. Contributions do not replace the entry or its warnings: until a botanist confirms, what is written above stands.