Flora-Fauna

Dactylorhiza romana (Sebast.) Soó subsp. romana

(First published in Nom. Nov. Gen. Dactylorhiza: 3 (1962); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1; 1966, as Orchis romana subsp. libanotica)

• Life-form & habit : Perennial tuberous geophyte; stem erect, 20–40 cm tall, leafy, arising from palmately divided tubers.

• Leaves : Leaves lanceolate, unspotted, arranged along the stem; upper leaves spaced and progressively reduced.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Inflorescence an erect spike, dense, sometimes many-flowered; flowers variable in colour, including white, pale yellow, pink or purplish forms; bracts herbaceous, lanceolate.

• Fruit : Capsule ellipsoid, ribbed, containing numerous minute seeds typical of Orchidaceae.

• Phenology : Flowers in spring.

• Habitat & elevation : Open mountain slopes, grasslands and lightly wooded habitats, mainly above 1000 m in Lebanon.

• Lebanese distribution : Present in Lebanese mountains, especially on the western slope of Mount Lebanon; previously treated in Lebanon as Dactylorhiza libanotica or Orchis romana subsp. libanotica.

• Native range : Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Greece, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, Sicilia, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe.

• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished within Lebanese Dactylorhiza by its unspotted leaves, erect dense spike and variable flower colour; the Lebanese plants formerly segregated as D. libanotica are now included by POWO in D. romana subsp. romana.