''Ophrys kotschyi'', the Cyprus bee orchid, is a terrestrial species of orchid native to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

. ''Ophrys kotschyi'' occurs in grasslands and in open pine woodlands. It is listed as "near-threatened" by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognized (as of May 2014):Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, ''Ophrys kotschyi''
/ref> Some molecular studies have suggested that the Greek populations might be only superficially similar, that they evolved independently from the Cypriot populations, thus perhaps meriting recognition as a distinct species.Gábor Sramkó, Gergely Gulyás & Attila Molnár V. 2011. Convergent evolution in ''Ophrys kotschyi'' (Orchidaceae) revisited: a study using nrITS and cpIGS sequences. Ann. Bot. Fennici 48: 97–106, Helsinki, ISSN 1797-2442
/ref> *''Ophrys kotschyi'' subsp. ''ariadnae'' (Paulus) Faurh. -

*''Ophrys kotschyi'' subsp. ''cretica'' (Soó) H.Sund. -

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

and other

Greek islands Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by a ...

*''Ophrys kotschyi'' subsp. ''kotschyi'' –

References

External links

Plant Net Cyprus, Establishment of a Plant Micro-Reserve Network in Cyprus for the Conservation of Priority Species and Habitats, ''Ophrys kotschyi''
* ttps://naturfotografen-forum.de/o677796-Kotschys%20Ragwurz%20%28Ophrys%20kotschyi%29 Forum fur Naturfotografen, Kotschys Ragwurz (''Ophrys kotschyi'') {{Taxonbar, from=Q1785436 kotschyi Orchids of Europe Flora of Cyprus Flora of Crete Flora of Greece Plants described in 1926