Ophrys
| Ophrys | |
|---|---|
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| Bee orchid (Ophrys apifera var. aurita) | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Orchidaceae |
| Subfamily: | Orchidoideae |
| Tribe: | Orchideae |
| Subtribe: | Orchidinae |
| Genus: | Ophrys L., 1753 |
| Type species | |
| Ophrys insectifera[1] L., 1753
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| Synonyms[2] | |
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The genus Ophrys is a large group of orchids from the alliance Orchis in the subtribe Orchidinae. They are widespread across much of Europe, North Africa, Caucasus, the Canary Islands, and the Middle East as far east as Turkmenistan.[2][3]
These plants are remarkable in that they successfully reproduce through pseudocopulation, that is, their flowers mimic female insects to such a degree that amorous males are fooled into mating with the flowers, thereby pollinating them. There are many natural hybrids.
They are referred to as the "bee orchids" due to the flowers of some species resemblance to the furry bodies of bees and other insects. Their scientific name Ophrys is the Greek word for "eyebrow", referring to the furry edges of the lips of several species.[4]
Ophrys was first mentioned in the book "Natural History" by Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD).
Biology
[edit]They are terrestrial or ground orchids found from central to South Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, up to the Caucasus Mountains, but mostly in the Mediterranean region. They have been said to be the most important group[clarification needed] of European terrestrial orchids.[5]
During summer, all Ophrys orchids are dormant as underground bulbous tubers, which serve as a food reserve. In late summer/autumn they develop a rosette of leaves. Also a new tuber starts to grow and matures until the following spring; the old tuber slowly dies. The next spring the flowering stem starts to grow. During the flowering period the leaves have already started to wither.[4]
Ophrys species, like other orchids, are dependent on symbiotic fungi at some point during their life cycle, but especially for germination, which may take months or even years underground. Orchid roots contain Orchid mycorrhiza, coils of fungal hyphae inside orchid root cells.[6]
Transplanting specimens, especially wild specimens, is difficult, sometimes impossible, due to this symbiosis unless a large amount of surrounding earth is also taken with the plant.[citation needed] All orchids are protected under CITES II and should not be removed or disturbed in habitat.
The shiny, basal leaves have a green or bluish colour. Two to twelve flowers grow on an erect stem with basal leaves.[5] These species are successfully cultivated by specialist growers of terrestrial orchids and are reported to be difficult to grow, being sensitive to rotting and damping off diseases if not properly subjected to a cool and dry aestivation period over the summer months with little water.[4]
Pollination
[edit]Orchids of the genus Ophrys use sexual deception to attract pollinators to their flowers. In sexual deception, an orchid attracts male pollinators by producing the sex pheromone of virgin female pollinators in addition to providing visual and tactile cues.[7] These signals stimulate mating behaviour in the male pollinators, which then attempt copulation, called "pseudocopulation", with the orchid labellum.[8] During pseudocopulation, pollen from the flower's column becomes attached to some part of the pollinator, usually the head or abdomen, and the pollinator inadvertently carries and transfers this pollen to other flowers when it is once again enticed into pseudocopulation.[9][10][11] While the morphological cues such as the shape and texture of the labellum play a role especially at close range in inducing the pollinator mating behavior, the orchid's pheromone mimic, or allomone, has been shown to play the most important role in enticing pollinators to the flower.[12][13][5]
The allomone produced by an orchid is specific to its pollinator, of which it usually only has one.[14][15][16] The allomone is a mixture of alkenes and alkanes.[17] There are one or more active species in this mixture that account for the attraction of pollinators.[18] Pollinators and orchids use the same chemical compounds in the same absolute amounts in their pheromones and allomones, respectively.[19]
Every Ophrys orchid has its own pollinator insect and is completely dependent on this species for its survival. Duped males are less likely to return and may ignore other plants of the same species. Only about 10% of an Ophrys population gets pollinated. This is enough to preserve the population, since each Ophrys orchid produces about 12,000 minute seeds.[4]
Species
[edit]The number of species recognised varies very widely between authorities. Flora Europaea in 1980 and Pedersen & Faurholdt in 2007 listed about 20 species in Europe as a whole;[20][21] Buttler in 1991 increased this to 53 for slightly larger geographical area;[22] Delforge in 1995 gave a total of 130 species.[23] By contrast, a molecular phylogenetic study in 2008 suggested that there were around 10 distinguishable groups.[24]
The need for further study is indicated. As of September 2025[update], Plants of the World Online accepted 25 species and a much larger number of hybrids:[25]
- Ophrys apifera Huds. – bee-orchid
- Ophrys argolica H.Fleischm. – Argolian bee-orchid
- Ophrys atlantica Munby – Atlantic bee-orchid
- Ophrys battandieri E.G.Camus
- Ophrys bertolonii Moretti – Bertoloni's bee-orchid
- Ophrys bombyliflora Link – bumblebee orchid
- Ophrys bornmuelleri M.Schulze
- Ophrys cilicica Schltr. – Cilician bee-orchid
- Ophrys cretica (Vierh.) E.Nelson – Cretan bee-orchid
- Ophrys ferrum-equinum Desf. – horseshoe bee-orchid
- Ophrys fusca Link – sombre bee-orchid
- Ophrys holosericea (Burm.f.) Greuter, syn. Ophrys fuciflora (F.W.Schmidt) Moench – late spider-orchid
- Ophrys insectifera L. – fly orchid
- Ophrys kotschyi H.Fleischm. & Soó – Cyprus bee-orchid, Kotschy's bee-orchid
- Ophrys lunulata Parl.
- Ophrys lutea Cav. – yellow bee-orchid
- Ophrys murbeckii H.Fleischm. – treated as a synonym of O. battandieri by other sources[26]
- Ophrys omegaifera H.Fleischm. – omega bee-orchid
- Ophrys reinholdii Spruner ex Fleischm. – Reinhold's bee-orchid
- Ophrys schulzei Bornm. & Fleischm.
- Ophrys scolopax Cav. – woodcock bee-orchid
- Ophrys speculum Link – mirror bee-orchid
- Ophrys sphegodes Mill. – early spider-orchid
- Ophrys tenthredinifera Willd.
- Ophrys umbilicata Desf.
Hybrids
[edit]Hybrids include:[25]
- Ophrys × arachnitiformis Gren. & Philippe – false spider orchid (hybrid O. fuciflora × O. sphegodes)
- Ophrys × campolati O.Danesch & E.Danesch (hybrid O. bertolonii × O. sphegodes × O. tenthredinifera)
- Ophrys × dessartiana P.Delforge[27]
- Ophrys × flavicans Vis. (hybrid O. bertolonii × O. sphegodes)
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Ophrys bombyliflora (bumblebee orchid) -
Ophrys cretica (Cretan bee-orchid) -
Ophrys fusca (sombre bee-orchid) -
Ophrys kotschyi (Cyprus bee orchid) -
Ophrys lutea (yellow bee-orchid) -
Ophrys reinholdii (Reinhold's bee-orchid) -
Ophrys speculum (mirror bee orchid) -
Ophrys tenthredinifera
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References
[edit]- ^ Jarvis, Taxon 41: 566 (1992)
- ^ a b Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
- ^ Altervista Flora Italiana, Ophrys
- ^ a b c d Pridgeon, Alec (1992). The Illustrated encyclopedia of orchids. Timber Press. ISBN 978-0-88192-267-7. OCLC 28182298.
- ^ a b c Dressler, Robert (1990). The orchids : natural history and classification. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-87526-5. OCLC 21301257.
- ^ Schweiger, Julienne M.-I.; Bidartondo, Martin I.; Gebauer, Gerhard (April 2018). Field, Katie (ed.). "Stable isotope signatures of underground seedlings reveal the organic matter gained by adult orchids from mycorrhizal fungi". Functional Ecology. 32 (4): 870–881. Bibcode:2018FuEco..32..870S. doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13042. ISSN 0269-8463.
- ^ Schiestl, F. P. (2005). "On the success of a swindle: pollination by deception in orchids" (PDF). Naturwissenschaften. 92 (6): 255–264. Bibcode:2005NW.....92..255S. doi:10.1007/s00114-005-0636-y. hdl:20.500.11850/32223. PMID 15931514. S2CID 24626163.
- ^ Schluter et al. 2009
- ^ Borg-Karlson, A.-K. (1990). "Chemical and ethological studies of pollination in the genus Ophrys (Orchidaceae)". Phytochemistry. 29 (5): 1359–1387. Bibcode:1990PChem..29.1359B. doi:10.1016/0031-9422(90)80086-v.
- ^ Gögler, J.; Stökl, J.; Sramkova, A.; Twele, R.; Francke, W.; Cozzolino, S.; Cortis, P.; Scrugli, A.; Ayasse, M. (2009). "Ménage à Trois — Two Endemic Species of Deceptive Orchids and One Pollinator Species". Evolution. 63 (9): 2222–2234. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00712.x. PMID 19473395.
- ^ Stokl, J.; Schluter, P. M.; Stuessy, T. F.; Paulus, H. F.; Fraberger, R.; Erdmann, D.; Schulz, C.; et al. (2009). "Speciation in sexually deceptive orchids: pollinator-driven selection maintains discrete odour phenotypes in hybridizing species". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 98 (2): 439–451. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2009.01279.x.
- ^ Schiestl 2005
- ^ Schluter et al. 2009
- ^ Ayasse et al. 2007
- ^ Gogler et al. 2009
- ^ Schluter et al. 2009
- ^ Schiestl and Cozzolino 2008
- ^ Vereeken and Schiestl 2008
- ^ Schiestl 2008
- ^ Tutin, T. G.; Heywood, V.H.; Burges, N.A.; Moore, D.M.; Valentine, D.H.; Walters, S.M. & Webb, D.A., eds. (1980), Flora Europaea, Vol. 5, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-20108-7
- ^ Pedersen, H.Æ. & Faurholdt, N. (2007), Ophrys : The Bee Orchids of Europe, Richmond, Surrey, UK: Kew Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84246-152-5
- ^ Buttler, Karl Peter (1991), Field Guide to Orchids of Britain and Europe, Swindon: Crowood, ISBN 978-1-85223-591-8
- ^ Delforge, Pierre (1995), Orchids of Britain and Europe, transl. Christine Grey-Wilson, London: HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-00-220024-0
- ^ Devey, D. S.; Bateman, R.M.; Fay, M.F. & Hawkins, J.A. (2008), "Friends or Relatives? Phylogenetics and Species Delimitation in the Controversial European Orchid Genus Ophrys", Annals of Botany, 101 (3): 385–402, doi:10.1093/aob/mcm299, PMC 2701817, PMID 18184645
- ^ a b "Ophrys L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
- ^ "Ophrys battandieri E.G.Camus". World Flora Online. Retrieved 2025-10-03.
- ^ "Ophrys × dessartiana P.Delforge". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
- Ayasse, Manfred (2007). "Chemical mimicry in sexually deceptive orchids of the genus Ophrys" (PDF). Phyton. 46 (2): 221–223.
- Schiestl, Florian P; Cozzolino, Salvatore (28 January 2008). "Evolution of sexual mimicry in the orchid subtribe orchidinae: the role of preadaptations in the attraction of male bees as pollinators". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 8 (1). Springer Nature: 27. Bibcode:2008BMCEE...8...27S. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-27. ISSN 1471-2148. PMC 2267782. PMID 18226206.
- Schluter, P. M.; Ruas, P. M.; Kohl, G.; Ruas, C. F.; Stuessy, T. F.; Paulus, H. F. (2009). "Genetic patterns and pollination in Ophrys iricolor and O-mesaritica (Orchidaceae): sympatric evolution by pollinator shift". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 159 (4): 583–598. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00957.x.
- Vereecken, N. J.; Schiestl, F. P. (2008). "The evolution of imperfect floral mimicry". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 105 (21): 7484–7488. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.7484V. doi:10.1073/pnas.0800194105. PMC 2396721. PMID 18508972.
External links
[edit]- Media related to Ophrys at Wikimedia Commons
- Extensive information and beautiful slides
- Ophrys picture database Archived 2009-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
- Orchids of Greece Archived 2018-05-14 at the Wayback Machine, slide show.
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