MaltaWildPlants.com by Stephen Mifsud
 
     
   16 Jan 2022      ()
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Ophrys lunulata   (Moon Spider Orchid)


Ophrys lunulata  (ORCHIDACEAE.) 
Images for this profile are taken from the Maltese Islands after year 2000.

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Profile Date Feb-18 (taxon update: 14-Aug-2017)
Citation for this page Mifsud, S. (2021) Ophrys lunulata profile created on Feb-18. Retrieved from MaltaWildPlants.com on 16-Jan-2022

Nomenclature and Basic Information

Species name :

Ophrys lunulataParlatore
Published in Parl., Gior. Sci. Sic. 62: 4 (1838)

Synonyms :
(basionym or principal syn.)

Ophrys aranifera subsp. lunulata (Parl.) E.G.Camus
Full list of synonyms : [Euro+Med] [PlantList] [IPNI] [POWO] [Catalogue of Life] [Worldplants.de]

Plant Family :

Orchidaceae Juss. (The Orchid Family)
41 species from the Orchidaceae family are recorded from the Maltese Islands.

English name(s) :

Moon Spider Orchid, Crescent Spider Orchid

Maltese name(s) :

Brimba tal-qamar, Orkida tal-qamar

Status for Malta :

Subendemic. Found in Malta and neighbouring territories such as in Sicily, Lampedusa, Pantelleria, and other islands.

Frequency :

Very Common     Common    Frequent     Scarce     Rare    Very rare     Extinct

Growth form :

Raunkiaer lifeform [info]: GEOPHYTE ( bearing underground bulbs, rhizomes, stolons, etc. )
Germination [info]: Monocotyledon

Legal Protection :

Protected by law: Schedule VI of [S.L. 549.44] (strictly protected species)

Red List (1989) :

Not listed in the Red Data Book of the Maltese Islands

Flowering Time :

March – April

Colour of Flowers:

Brown or Dark

Name Derivation :

Ophrys: Eyebrow, referring to the brown, furry edges found in the flowering lips of several. (Latin origin )
lunulata:

Remarks :

Photos in this page are not taken from the Maltese Islands.


Description, Habitat and Distribution
Habitat in Europe: Grassland, garigue, rocky scrub; calcicole.
Preferred habitat in Malta: Garigue and open maquis, somewhat preferring sheltered locations
Botanical Description: Plant up to 25 cm. Basal leaves 4-6, oblong-lanceolate. Spike 4- to 7-flowered, lax. Perianth-segments lilac, rarely whitish; outer 10-13 mm, ovate to oblong, obtuse, the lateral close to the labellum and deflexed-patent; inner 2/3 as long as or almost as long as the outer, linear-lanceolate. Labellum 10-12 mm, ovate, 3-lobed, the lateral lobes narrow, without or with small basal protuberances, strongly deflexed, the middle lobe with strongly deflexed margin, brown, rarely blackish-purple, with glabrous, greenish or yellow marginal zone, emarginate at apex, with small appendage; speculum crescentic, whitish or lilac to brown in the centre Connective acute.
Distributional range: Islands of C. Mediterranean region.

Distributional map in Europe
and the Mediterranean region (2018):
Occurrences in Europe.
(from Flora Europaea pre year 1993): 		Italy (excl. Sicily and Sardignia), Sardinia, Sicily and/or Malta
Occurrences in Europe and the Mediterranean region.
(from Euro+Med Checklist, 2019)
  Country codes   		Si

Links & Further literature (2 papers)

Google Web
Google Images
Google Scholar
Research Gate
Wikipedia
JSTOR
GBIF
Med Checklist
Cat. of Life
EoL

IPNI
World Flora Online
Plants of the World Online
Vienna Virt. Herb.
RBGE Herbarium
KEW Herbarium
MNHN
Arkive
IUCN
CABI
Recent observations on Ophrys-species and hybrids of the Maltese Archipelago Stephen Mifsud & Leslie Lewis  (2011)
Recent observations on the Ophrys of Malta and Gozo: an Addendum Stephen Mifsud & leslie Lewis  (2013)
Kindly Email if there are papers and publications about local studies or information about this species to be included in the list above.

Species Images (2 images)
   Ophrys lunulata   -   Image Code: OPHLN-0.
   Ophrys lunulata   -   Image Code: OPHLN-1.

Only 2 images of Ophrys lunulata are available. If you can share your own images of this species with this website, please do so by using the image upload form below. Credits are given to the authors.

 
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