Flora-Fauna

Dactylorhiza phoenissa (B.Baumann & H.Baumann) P.Delforge

(First published in Naturalistes Belges 96(Orchid. 28): 15 (2015); basionym: Dactylorhiza urvilleana subsp. phoenissa B.Baumann & H.Baumann, J. Eur. Orch. 37: 251 (2005))

• Life-form & habit : Perennial tuberous geophyte; stem erect, robust to moderately slender, usually 20–60 cm tall, leafy, glabrous, arising from palmately divided tubers.

• Leaves : Basal and lower cauline leaves lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, green, often unspotted or only faintly marked; upper leaves progressively smaller, bract-like near the inflorescence; margins entire, surfaces glabrous.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Inflorescence a dense to moderately lax terminal spike; bracts lanceolate, often exceeding the flowers below; flowers pink to purplish, sometimes paler; labellum three-lobed, broader than long or nearly so, marked with darker purple lines and spots; spur cylindrical to slightly conical, shorter than or about equalling the ovary.

• Fruit : Capsule erect to slightly spreading, ellipsoid, ribbed, containing numerous minute dust-like seeds typical of Orchidaceae.

• Phenology : Flowers from June to August

• Habitat & elevation : Moist meadows, spring-fed grasslands, seepage zones and humid montane clearings; mainly in mountain habitats where soil moisture persists into spring.

• Lebanese distribution : Endemic to Lebanon, known from humid montane habitats of Mount Lebanon; highly local and dependent on persistent spring moisture.

• Native range : Lebanon.

• Diagnostic remarks : A Lebanese endemic formerly treated as Dactylorhiza urvilleana subsp. phoenissa; distinguished within the Dactylorhiza urvilleana group by its restricted Lebanese range, robust leafy stems, purplish flowers and labellum patterning.