''Neotinea'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s from the orchid family,

Orchidaceae 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 ...

. It is native to much of Europe, the Mediterranean region, and the islands of the eastern Atlantic, from the Canaries,

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and Ireland east to Iran and

Western Siberia Western Siberia or West Siberia (russian: Западная Сибирь, Zapadnaya Sibir'; kk, Батыс Сібір) is a part of the larger region of Siberia that is mostly located in the Russian Federation. It lies between the Ural region an ...

Description

The Neotinea species are relatively low-growing and small, perennial herbaceous plants. They form ovoid tubers as outlasting organs, so they belong to the geophytes. Each plant has two tubers, one old (previous year) and one new (this year). The erect stem is often slightly bluish. There are two to four leaves in a basal rosette and one or two more on the stem, these can be spotted or unspotted. The densely flowered inflorescence is cylindrical in outline, sometimes conical. The bracts are formed as membranous bracts. The hermaphrodite flowers are relatively small, they are greenish white, straw-colored, whitish or pink in color, zygomorphic and triad. The bracts, especially the lip, are often mottled darker pink to purple or have a line drawing. The lip has three lobes, the middle lobe is occasionally divided into two, and its surface is often covered with small papillae. The spur is always present, it can be short and conical or longer and cylindrical. The five other petals (sepals and petals) are tilted forward together, forming a helmet. The columna is short, with two large lateral scars that meet at the bottom. The two pollinia are short-stalked. As with all orchids, the seeds are very numerous and dust-fine, often only 1/4 millimeter in size and a millionth of a gram in weight.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Neotinea'' is named after an Italian botanist,

Vincenzo Tineo Vincenzo Tineo ( Militello in Val di Catania, 27 February 1791 – Palermo, 25 July 1856) was an Italian Botanist. From 1814 to 1856 he was the director of the Palermo Botanical Garden. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation wh ...

(1791-1856), who was Director of

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

botanical garden and later the Chancellor of Palermo University. His published works include 'Plantarum rariorum Sicilae' (1817) and 'Catalogus plantarum horti' (1827)Plant Lives - Plant Biographies
/ref> The formerly monotypic genus ''Neotinea'' was extended in a revision of the Subtribe Orchidinae by Bateman in 1997 on the basis of genetic characters to include the species in the Galericulatae section of the genus Orchis.

Species

, the

World Checklist of Selected Plant Families The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) is an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected plan ...

accepts four divided into two sections including one of natural hybrid.

Natural Hybrids

References

* Pridgeon, A.M., Cribb, P.J., Chase, M.A. & Rasmussen, F. eds. (1999). Genera Orchidacearum 1. Oxford Univ. Press. * Pridgeon, A.M., Cribb, P.J., Chase, M.A. & Rasmussen, F. eds. (2001). Genera Orchidacearum 2. Oxford Univ. Press. * Pridgeon, A.M., Cribb, P.J., Chase, M.A. & Rasmussen, F. eds. (2003). Genera Orchidacearum 3. Oxford Univ. Press * Berg Pana, H. 2005. ''Handbuch der Orchideen-Namen. Dictionary of Orchid Names. Dizionario dei nomi delle orchidee''. Ulmer, Stuttgart

External links