This is essentially an Aegean orchid although it also occurs sparingly in neighbouring area's of Anatolia and
somewhat strangely in south west Italy around Puglia.
It can also be found as far south as Crete and it was from here that it was first described in 1985. Its
name candica refers to Candia which was the ancient name of present day Iraklion, the main city of
Crete. Quite why it was named after the city of Iraklion when it was discovered near the city of Chania
at the other end of the island is unknown ?
The centre's of its distribution seem to be the islands of Rhodes and Samos where it is relatively common
and frequently hybridizes with other of the fuciflorids to create challenging identification opportunities !
As can be seen from the photo's, the species is highly variable in both overall lip shape and speculum
pattern. The basic colouration is however somewhat more stable and is typically a chestnut to deep red
base often with a violet to blue reflection running through it. The pattern is normally edged with a
heavy white to pale yellow border.
O. candica always features basal swellings though these can be of variable appearance, ranging from
barely noticable to small horns. Where these horns are noticably elongated the species is deemed to be
variety minoa though at what horn length the type becomes the variety I dont know ? (See separate page
for O. candica v minoa). All photograph's are from Rhodes and date from the first two weeks of
April.
