''Limodorum'' is a genus of

myco-heterotrophic Myco-heterotrophy (from Greek μύκης , "fungus", ἕτερος ', "another", "different" and τροφή ', "nutrition") is a symbiotic relationship between certain kinds of plants and fungi, in which the plant gets all or part of its food fro ...

orchids 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. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

. All species are temperate terrestrial plants and occur across much of Europe, North-West Africa, the Mediterranean Islands, and as far east as Iran. Plants have evolved away from

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...

and as a result their leaves are reduced to

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

. There is still

chlorophyll Chlorophyll (also chlorophyl) is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words , ("pale green") and , ("leaf"). Chlorophyll allow plants to a ...

present but the plants are believed to be solely dependent on their fungal partner for nutrients. They spend most of their life underground as a short stem with fleshy roots, the unbranched inflorescence can appear in April to June if conditions are favourable. The name finds its origin in "haemodoron", first applied by

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routledge ...

and later adopted by

Jacques Daléchamps Jacques Daléchamps (1513, Caen – 1588) was a French botanist and physician. When the scholar Isaac Casaubon first established the Greek text of the recently rediscovered '' Deipnosophistae'', it was printed alongside a Latin translation by ...

to refer to

parasitic plants A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...

most likely in

Orobanche ''Orobanche'', commonly known as broomrape, is a genus of over 200 species of small parasitic herbaceous plants, mostly native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. It is the type genus of the broomrape family Orobanchaceae. Description Broom ...

. The name is derived from the Greek “leimo-” (meadow) and “dōron,” (gift).

Species

A very long list of names has been proposed over the years. Most of these species, once part of ''Limodorum'', have been transferred to other genera. There are currently three recognised species in ''Limodorum'':Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>Altervista Flora Italiana, Fior di legna, Violet Limodore, ''Limodorum abortivum'' (L.) Swartz
/ref> *'' Limodorum abortivum'' (L.) Swartz - Central Europe, the Mediterranean region as far east as Iran and the Caucasus *'' Limodorum trabutianum'' Bartolo & Pulv. - Turkey *'' Limodorum rubriflorum'' Batt. - Spain, Portugal, Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily, mainland Italy, Algeria, Morocco

References

* (1760) Definitiones Generum Plantarum 358. * (2006) Epidendroideae (Part One). Genera Orchidacearum 4: 506 ff. Oxford University Press.

External links

Orchids of Britain and Europe
* * Neottieae Neottieae genera Myco-heterotrophic orchids {{Epidendroideae-stub

Species

See also

References

External links