Orchis purpurea
Orchis purpurea
Ssp caucasica: Tukuk salebi; Ssp purpurea: Hasancık
Stout plant, 40-80 cm, with 4-6 ovate-oblong leaves near base, to 16 x 6 cm. Spike ± dense and many-flowered, flowers large. Sepals forming a globose hood, uniformly coloured or with conspicuous dense dark reddish-brown spots outside. Labellum flat, to 20 mm, 3-lobed, whitish or pale rose, densely spotted with tufts of reddish-purple papillae; lateral lobes linear; middle lobe obcordate or obovate-cuneate, slightly bilobed; lobules broadly rhombic, rounded or truncate, irregularly crenulate, mostly with a tooth in between. Spur cylindrical, curved forwards, nearly half as long as ovary. Fl. 4-5. Glades and edges ofdeciduous forests, scrub, on calcareous soils, 100-1750 m.
N., W., C. & S. Europe, Cyprus, Caucasia. Euro-Sib. element.
