This is essentially a Greek orchid although it can also occur sparingly in neighbouring Albania. O. ferrum-equinum belongs within the vast O. mammosa group and must surely rank as one of the more attractive members of what can be a fairly dull family.
It is widespread throughout Greece but can be unaccountably absent from large, seemingly suitable area's
On occasion however it can occur in huge numbers and I well remember a colony near Lagonisi in Attica that was thousands strong and formed a vast drift along a shallow valley near the coast. The flowers look jet black in strong light and the contrast of dark body and light petals make it quite a challenge to take photographs successfully.
The species is highly variable and many taxa have been described but all seem to fall within the nominative type. There are however three accepted varieties, namely "labiosa", "subtriloba" and "parnassica", all of which occur throughout the same range, though never in large numbers.
The illustrations are all variations of the nominative variety with photo's 3 and 5 being perhaps the most
typical. Photo 1 is an interesting example which comes from Chios. It shows a plant which was actually described to me as being O. spruneri and whilst it certainly shows some of the characteristics of this species (notably the speculum necklace surrounding the stigmatic cavity) we believe it to be simply an unusually marked O. ferrum-equinum. But then again ?
O. ferrum-equinum means horseshoe and alludes to the pattern of the speculum. The photo's are from various sites on the Greek mainland and the Aegean islands.
The following oddities are all from Mount Hymettus near Athens.
