SERAPIASL. - TONGUE ORCHID
Scientific Description:
Perennials with 2(–4) undivided tubers. Leaves lanceolate, erect or sometimes folded and curved. Spike ± elongate, lax to condensed. Bracts conspicuous, large, mostly exceeding flowers. Sepals and petals connivent into a pointed hood. Petals tapering ± abruptly from a roundish base into a long fine point. Labellum spurless, 3-lobed, divided into a basal hypochile and a distal epichile, with 2 parallel ridges, or a single callosity at base; lateral lobes of hypochile erect; epichile tongue-like, ± directed downwards or recurved. Column with beak-like subulate connective. Pollinia attached to a single viscidium, enclosed in a pouch. Ovary cylindrical to fusiform, sessile, not twisted, glabrous.
Reference:
Renz J & Taubenheim G (1984). Serapias L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 8: 502.
Public Description:
Serapias, commonly known as “tongue orchid”, is native to southern Europe to Türkiye. There are approximately 36 species in the world and 6 species (8 taxa) in Türkiye. The genus was named after “Serapis”, a syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god in Antiquity. It is referred to as tongue orchid, because of the shape of the flower lip. Tongue orchids are tuberous perennial herbs.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2017). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serapias, Accessed date: 10.05.2017.
Anonymous 2 (2017). http://www.paulharcourtdavies.com/portfolio369012.html, Accessed date: 10.05.2017.
Anonymous 3 (2017). http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Orchidaceae/Serapias/, Accessed date: 10.05.2017
Deniz İG (2012). Serapias 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. 650–651.
