O. ingrassiae was first described as a sub-species of O. oxyrrhychos in 2011 from Apulia, Italy and is named in honour of the late Aldo Ingrassia, a noted twentieth century, Italian naturalist.

This species is part of a group of southern Italian fuciflorids that have caused taxonomic problems to botanists for several years. In particular, separating this species from O. cellensis is difficult and given that the latter taxon is itself subject to some botanical scepticism, its unsurprising that the validity of O. ingrassiae as a separate species is also questioned.

O. celiensis is widely considered to to be of hybrid origin involving O. oxyrrhynchos and O. apulica. and its appearance and variability give support to this theory, as does the fact that they share a mutual pollinator. This theory is however complicated by the fact that as far as is known, O. oxyrrhynchos has never been recorded from the limited area that comprises the range of O. celiensis. It is possible that historically, introgression and backcrossing have subsumed O. oyrrhnchos altogether. The ranges of O. celiensis and O. ingrassiae are very similar and the two taxons undoubtedly associate but we will assume them to be distinct. The latter differs from the former in its slightly smaller size, larger appendage, simpler specular pattern and marginally later flowering period. These characteristics can however be extremely difficult to determine in the field.

The photos come from Martina Franca in Apulia, dating from the first week of May.