This Ophrys together with another of the Sicillian endemics, O. flammeola are the species at the centre of
the botanical quarrel between the supporters of Delforge and those of the German Frau Gack which is briefly described on this site under the heading of the latter species.
According to Delforge therefore, O. gackiae was first formally described in 2004 but named in honour of
Gack as a recognition of the research she had undertaken in the early 1990's when the plant had been
provisionally named O. florentina-fusca. Delforge's detractors maintain that O. gackiae i s not that plant
and that it was O. flammeola which should bear the name of the German biologist. The plant studied by
Gack was thought to be hybridogenous between O. lutea and O. fusca sl and it must be conceded that
O. flammeola more obviously demonstrates characteristics suggesting a lineage that could include
O. lutea.
The fusca's of Sicily (with the exception of O. mirablis, O. calocaerina and O. obaesa) are a difficult
group to separate and hours of reading descriptions and studying photo's have not made the task any easier
There are a couple of features which cannot be demonstrated in photography and the first of these is the
size of the flowers in O. sabulosa, which are significantly bigger than those of O. gackiae or O. lupercalis.
Secondly, the flowers of these latter two orchids are much earlier and will be in poor condition by the time
O. sabulosa appears. O. gackiae is a smaller plant with few flowers (rarely more than 5) whereas O.
lupercalis is tallish with up to 10 flowers. The latter plant has a smaller average width to length ratio and
can therefore appear to be a longer, narrower plant but as mentioned before I have viewed the pictures of
several respected botanists and this feature seems unreliable in isolation.
