Habitat: Lambou Mili parking place, altitude 185m. Young pine woods.
The 13 members of the Ophrys fusca-family, 2-01-2014 until 31-03-2014. © Jan van Lent 7-03-2014.
CONTINUATION from blog 30, 31, 32 & 33: The story of an ‘ordinary’ Ophrys fusca group, somewhere next to a parking spot in a Lesvos pine forest along the ‘highway’ to Mytilini in the neighbourhood of Lambou Mili.
The 4 surviving members in February 2014 (15-02-2014): sancti-isidorii, phaseliana, lindia, leucadica.
Pl.1 Oph. sancti-isidorii; very early flowering, bent lip, short lateral lobes, reddish border.
Pl. 6 Oph. phaseliana; broadly rhomboidal lip and broad lateral lobes, yellow-brown border.
Pl.10 Oph. lindia; almost straight lip, small stigmatic cavity, small yellow or reddish border.
Pl.12 Oph.leucadica; reddish-brown lip, lateral lobes rounded, half concealed under the middle lip, small reddish border.
PART 5: March 2014 – 2013 – 2012 – 2011:
07-03-2014: Pl.8: Ophrys fusca ssp. leucadica RENZ 1928.
Pl.10: Ophrys fusca ssp. lindia H.F. PAULUS 2001.
Sadly enough there are today (7-03-2014) only two Ophrys left: Ophrys lindia & a newly flowering Ophrys leucadica, plant 8. All the others are broken, eaten, stepped on and – plant 6 Oph. phaseliana - even completely VANISHED from the spot. But I’ve got photographs from this fusca-group from March 2011, 2012 and 2013. So I can compare these Ophrys from year to year.
02-03-2013 pl.1 & 2: Ophrys sancti-isidorii A. & P.SALIARIS & ALIBERTIS 2010.
Pl.6: Ophrys phaseliana (D. & U. RÜCKBRODT 1996), KREUTZ 2004.
Pl.7: Ophrys pelinaea DELFORGE 2007.
Pl.10: Ophrys lindia H.F. PAULUS 2001.
Pl.12: Ophrys leucadica RENZ 1928.
At the beginning of March 2013 there were 6 plants in flower! Pl.1 Oph. sancti-isidorii had 3 flowers; pl.2 Oph. sancti-isidorii: 3 flowers; pl.6 Oph.phaseliana: 3 flowers; pl.7 Oph.pelinaea: 2 flowers; pl.10: Oph.lindia only 1 flower and pl.13 Oph. leucadica: 2 flowers.
19-03-2012 Pl.1 & 2: Ophrys sancti-isidorii, A. & P.SALIARIS & ALIBERTIS 2010.
Pl.4: Ophrys sancti-isidorii.
Pl.6: Ophrys phaseliana (D. & U. RÜCKBRODT 1996), KREUTZ 2004.
2 years ago, on the 19th of March 2012, 4 plants were flowering: Plants 1 and 2, both Oph. sancti-isidorii; plant 4 Oph. sancti-isidorii was also flowering a did plant 6: O. phaseliana. The lip of O.phaseliana had a more reddish colour but otherwise it looks the same as in the other years.
12-03-2011 Pl.1&2: Ophrys sancti-isidorii, A. & P.SALIARIS & ALIBERTIS 2010.
Pl.4: Ophrys sancti-isidorii.
Pl.6: Ophrys phaseliana (D. & U. RÜCKBRODT 1996), KREUTZ 2004.
And I can now also compare today’s Lambou Mili Ophrys with 2011 because I was at this spot for the first time on 12-03-11. On that date there were 4 plants flowering: plants 1 & 2:
O. sancti-isidorii, plant 4: O.s-isidorii??? and plant 6: O. phaseliana.
Pl.7: Ophrys pelinaea © Jan van Lent, 12-03-2013 #106
BOTTOM-LINE: Observing that all those Ophrys fusca subspecies sometimes flower together for years, often at the same time (February-March!), next to each other on the same habitat, – and to make it a little bit more confusing, they are all brown, with a white W and some blue in the speculum – it makes me wonder how orchid specialists (professors and orchidologists) who are visiting the Greek islands for just one or two weeks between April and June could have known what they have seen and how they could give a ‘new’ name (and of course their own name as author) to those orchids…
I’ve noticed that there is something ‘strange’ with plant 4, which was in 2012 clearly Oph. sancti-isidorii but in 2011 the same plant looked like a hybrid between Oph. phaseliana and Oph. sancti-isidorii. Was it in earlier years Ophrys phaseliana or even Ophrys pelinaea which developed through 3 or 4 years into Oph. sancti-isidorii?
And are there maybe more Ophrys on this spot which disguised themselves as something which they were not? We will figure that out in the next episode of ‘Sooner or Later’!
Jan van Lent, Lesvos 16-4-2014.
‘Sooner or Later’: Breaking Benjamin 2007.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpdFoizbnTg
‘It Makes Me Wonder’: Suzanne Vega 2008.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXvEtikBNJg