Small-flowered serapias
Serapias parviflora
Family · Orchidaceae · Harmless
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The most discreet of the tongue orchids: a narrow spike of small flowers with the lip pressed against the stem instead of hanging. It goes unnoticed among tall grass.
Fields and pasture · Scrubland · Pine woods · Dunes and sand
Also known aslesser tongue orchid
How to tell it
A narrow spike with three to eight small flowers. The lip is narrow, dull brick red, and is pressed down against the stem, almost parallel, which separates it from other serapias, where it spreads outward. Sepals in a greyish purple beak. A slender plant, twenty to forty centimetres.
What it is confused with
Tongue orchid
Serapias lingua
The lip decides: hanging out and down on tongue orchid, pressed against the stem on this one. And tongue orchid has one shiny callus in the throat, this has two. Neither is picked.
What it is for
None
Like the others in the genus it offers shelter rather than nectar: insects spend the night in the flower tube and leave covered in pollen. It is among the orchids that vanish fastest when a field is ploughed.
The law says
Protected by CITES and national law. Photograph it, do not pick it.
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
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