OPHRYSL. - BEE ORCHID
Scientific Description:
Mainly small perennial herbs with 2 roundish undivided tubers. Leaves mostly basal. Spike rather lax, with showy flowers. Sepals ± spreading or reflexed, glabrous, green, rose or whitish. Petals smaller, glabrous or hairy. Labellum spurless, flattish, arched or strongly convex, entire or 3-lobed, gibbous near base or not, often with small apical appendix, velvety above, with variously designed shiny glabrous markings (speculum). Column with obtuse or acute, rarely ± elongate connective. Pollinia 2, attached to separate viscidia, each enclosed in a separate pouch (bursicula). Ovary sessile, not or slightly twisted, glabrous.
Reference:
Renz J & Taubenheim G (1984). Ophrys L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 8: 476.
Public Description:
Ophrys, commonly known as “bee orchid”, is native to Europe, Türkiye, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and the Middle East as far east as Turkmenistan. There are approximately 149 species in the world and 54 species (106 taxa) in Türkiye. Ophrys referred to as the "bee orchids" due to the flowers of some species resemblance to the furry bodies of bees and other insects. The name Ophrys is the Greek word for "eyebrow", referring to the furry edges of the lips of several species. This plant has a very interesting form of reproduction. The plant flowers mimic female bees and attracts male bees to mate. Male bees approach the flowers as if they are female bees and try to mate. In the meantime, the flower pollen swarms the male bees and contributes to the reprogramming of the plant by carrying pollen every time this movement is repeated.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2017). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophrys, Accessed date: 09.05.2017.
Anonymous 2 (2017). http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Orchidaceae/Ophrys/, Accessed date: 09.05.2017.
Deniz İG (2012). Ophrys L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 638–645.
