Early spider orchid
Ophrys sphegodes
Family · Orchidaceae · Harmless
The orchid that really does look like a spider perched on the flower: a bulging velvety brown lip with an H or pi shaped mark in metallic blue in the middle, over green sepals.
Fields and pasture · Scrubland · Uplands
Also known asspider orchid
How to tell it
Pale green, elongated, spreading sepals. A round, strongly bulging lip, dark brown and velvety, with no yellow rim, bearing a shiny bluish central mark shaped like an H, an X or two bars. No appendage at the tip. Two to ten flowers per spike.
What it is confused with
Dark bee orchid
Ophrys fusca
Dark bee orchid has a flat three-lobed lip with a central groove and a dull greyish mark; spider orchid's lip is entire, strongly bulging, with a shiny metallic blue mark.
What it is for
None
It is one of Europe's most variable orchids and among the hardest to name with certainty, which is only settled by a good specialist and a good photograph.
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.