This species was first described by Danesch and Danesch from Grosseto, Italy in 1972. It was named O. exaltata ssp. montis-leonis, although at that time many experts considered subspecies status to be a somewhat elevated position for an orchid they believed to be an as yet unstablized hybrid. In 1980, Golz and Reinhard produced a paper reintroducing the taxon as O. exaltata subsp. tyrrhena and in 2001 Delforge described it in his then newly produced reference book as a full species, naming it O. montis-leonis. Kreutz reaffirmed this view in his 2024 publication.

This is a difficult orchid to describe as its assumed hybridogenous origins are morphologically displayed in varying proportions that encompass plants virtually indistinguishable from O. exaltata s.l. and those with features clearly belonging to the O. argolica or O. fuciflora families. That a group of clearly hybrid plants occur along the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy is not in any question but whether these plants are stable and represent a single species is far less clear and expert opinion is still very divided.

Its pollinator has been identified as Colletes cunicularis, a bee well known as the pollinator of a range of O. exaltata group taxons but not O. cilentata, one of the suggested parents. the authors here feel subspecies status would seem to be the most appropriate classification for this orchid. Those plants with strong fuciflorid features depicted by some authors may yet prove to be the hybridogenous species O. montis-leonis but could equally represent introgressed but nonetheless unstabilized intermediates.

The pictures come from a site 20 kms south of Grosetto, Tuscany, dating from the first week of April.