O.apifera was
first described by Hudson from England as far back as 1762. Its name refers to the flowers resemblance
to a bee and accordingly the species has long
been commonly (and not a little affectionately) known
as the Bee Orchid.
It's a widespread orchid with a distribution across temperate and
Mediterranean Europe as far east as the
Caucasus. In its favoured locations it can be abundant and its
choice of habitat is wide, ranging from the driest
chalk grassland and garrigue to wet even swampy conditions. It
predominently favours full sun positions but will tolerate (though not relish) even significant shade.
O.apifera
is largely self-pollinating and this autogamy seems responsible for the
frequent appearance of variant plants, some of
which, although not of
evolutionary significance occur on a sufficiently
regular basis to have aquired formal varietal status.
O. apifera v fulvofusca is an uncommon variety found
throughout the range of O. apifera
but has been rarely recorded in the UK.
The lip has completely lost its specular
markings and appears as a uniform brown
though as can be seen from the photograph, the basal field is
still vaguely visible as a lighter shade of brown.
The photograph was taken in Weymouth, Dorset, UK and dates from the end of June.
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