This species was first described from Italy in 1813 and its name unsurprisingly means roman orchid.
D. romana is a widespread orchid living primarily on the central and eastern area's of the Mediterranean, but reaching as far east as Bulgaria and Russia. It may be found in many sorts of
habitat and soil type but shows a marked preference for woodland, ( even relatively heavy woodland)
and although not exclusively a montane orchid it is more frequent at higher altitudes and will happily
tolerate mountain existence up to the 2000m mark.
It usually occurs in colonies and on occasions these can cover large area's, although they are seldom
tightly packed with plants. D. romana doesnt tend to be found gowing in association with many other similar species of orchid, largely because of its choice of habitat, its therefore unlikely to be difficult
to identify. The very similar D. markusii seems to prefer more acidic conditions.
Perhaps the one species that may cause cunfusion with the white vatiety is O. provincialis but this can usually be differentiated by its heavily dark spotted leaves, differing bracts and the red markings of the flower which are completely absent on D. romana.
This orchid occurs in white, yellow and red varieties and as with D. sambucina all colour phases may be
present within the same populations. Intermediates between the colour forms are common and many
of the photograph's here depict this mixed variation from a large colony on the Aegean island of Lesbos. Interestingly neither the pure red or white parents could be found. The 2 white examples are from Gargano and the remainder are from Sicily and Cyprus. Photo 12 is a hybrid with D. sambucina.
