''Orchis patens'' is a species of

orchid 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 ...

found from the central

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

to northwestern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Description

It is a bulbous geophytic herbaceous plant, with a stem from 20 to 50 cm high, green in color, turning towards the purplish brown in the upper part. The basal

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

, from 3 to 7, are united in a rosette and lanceolate, up to 20 cm long, sometimes light-brown spotted; those cauline, from 1 to 3, are smaller and sheath the stem; the narrow

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s are purplish-red in color. The pink to lilac

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are gathered in dense, roughly cylindrical

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s. The concave lateral

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s have a central greenish area spotted with purple; the median sepal is folded like a helmet on the

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s, which are also greenish in the center. The labellum is trilobed, purplish pink with a lighter area at the base, with a 10–14 mm long dotted median lobe, with a roughly indented margin. The spur is conical, horizontal with a slightly descending apex, 6–8 mm long. It flowers between April and May. The

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

shape is clavate with short basal and apical cells, while the medial cells are elongated. The pericline walls are smooth, as the ornaments are absent, and the anticline walls are sinuous / wavy. The number of cells along the longitudinal axis is between five and eight (usually seven). The average length of the seeds is about 400 µm.

Biology

The

germination Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, fer ...

of ''Orchis patens'' seeds has been shown to be induced by the interaction with the

mycorrhiza A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. mycorrhizae, mycorrhiza or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant ...

fungus A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...

Tulasnella ''Tulasnella'' is a genus of effused (patch-forming) fungi in the order Cantharellales. Basidiocarps (fruit bodies), when visible, are typically smooth, ceraceous (waxy) to subgelatinous, frequently lilaceous to violet-grey, and formed on the un ...

helicospora''. The chromosome number of ''Orchis patens'' is 2n = 84.

Distribution and habitats

It has a very fragmented range that includes North Africa (

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

) and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, where it is currently present only in eastern

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

; in the past it was also observed in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

near

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 ...

(described by

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 ...

as ''Orchis panormitana'') but the latter could be an incorrect identification. Recently, a genetic study on Mediterranean populations has highlighted a significant genetic difference between the African population (originally described by Desfontaines in 1799) and the Italian population which can be considered a different subspecies, ''Orchis patens'' subsp. ''brevicornis'' It grows preferentially on acid soils, in olive groves, chestnut and oak clearings, meadows, along the edges of cultivated land, in full light or in semi-shade, from sea level up to 1500 m of altitude.

Conservation

Due to its narrow range, the Mediterranean

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

classifies ''Orchis patens'' as "Vulnerable". The species was chosen as the flagship species for th
LIFEorchids
conservation project co-financed by the

LIFE programme The LIFE programme (French: L’Instrument Financier pour l’Environnement) is the European Union's funding instrument for the environment and climate action. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and d ...

of the European Union.

References

patens Orchids of Lebanon Taxa named by René Louiche Desfontaines {{Orchidoideae-stub