Yellow bee orchid
Ophrys lutea
Family · Orchidaceae · Harmless
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The easiest of our bee orchids to recognise: a dark brown lip in the centre with a broad bright yellow margin all round, like a seal. It flowers early, on limestone and open southern scrub.
Scrubland · Fields and pasture · Pine woods · Uplands
Also known asyellow ophrys
How to tell it
A short spike of two to six flowers. The sepals are green and spreading. The lip is the signature: three lobes, the central one with a dark brown or bluish blotch in the middle and a broad bright yellow rim, folded down at the edges. A rosette of pale green basal leaves.
What it is confused with
Dark bee orchid
Ophrys fusca
Both have a brown lip and grow together. The yellow one has a broad obvious yellow rim all round the lip; the dark one is brown right to the edge, with no yellow rim or only a very thin line.
Open sheet →What it is for
None. Like all orchids of the genus, it deceives male bees, which try to mate with the flower and pollinate it in the process. An orchid is not picked, not transplanted and does not survive away from where it grew, because it depends on soil fungi.
The law says
Protected by CITES and national law, like all wild orchids. Photograph it, do not pick it.