SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ORCHIS QUADRIPUNCTATA
Family and Genus:- See- ORCHIDACEAE
Common Names:- Four spotted orchid
Homotypic Synonyms:- Androrchis quadripunctata.
Meaning:- Orchis (Gr) Testicle, (the shape of the root-tubers).
Quadripunctata (L) With four spots, four-spotted.
General description:- Short, often rather flexuous plant.
Stem:-
1) 10-30 cm, slender, leafless above, often purplish.
Leaves:-
1) Basal, 3-5, forming an indistinct rosette, broadly lanceolate, somewhat folded or
canaliculate, fresh green with or without dark spots.
2) Cauline, few, sheathing.
Flowers:-
1) Spike, ovoid to cylindrical, 10-25-flowered, rather lax. Flowers small, roundish in
face view, usually reddish-purple.
2) Sepals and petals, 3-5 mm, ovate, subobtuse.
3) Labellum, c. 7 mm, suborbicular or slightly wider than long, 3-lobed,
with 4 purple dots at the base (usually only 2 visible from the outside).
a) lobes, small and rather square. central lobe, notched.
4) Spur, filiform, equalling ovary.
Key features:-
1) Spur, filiform, acute.
2) Labellum, at least as wide as long, with 2 purple dots at the base (and 2 more
not visible from outside).
Habitat:- Seasonally damp spots in dry open shrubby vegetation, patches of
meadow, open woodland and fallow fields. 0-1300 m.
Distribution:- Sardinia, Italy and Sicily eastwards, including Crete and Cyprus.
Widespread and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Late Mar to May.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
