This is an Ophrys endemic to the island of Sicily and the offshore Eolian Islands which was first
described from the Palermo region in 1838.
It is both distinctive, highly attractive and locally common to the south and west of Mount Etna where as
well as the classic calcareous terrain's, it happily grows on stable, colonized lava formations. Its name
literally means "with lunula" where lunula presumably refers to the small loosely crescent shaped speculum.
The lip of this species is strongly convex and from the front gives the orchid a log thin appearance which is
easily recognized in the field. The degree of this recurvation and the depth of the yellow margin
is apparent from pictures 11 and 13. This together with the thick sub marginal band of hairs and small
speculum serve to make O. lunulata a relatively straightforward orchid to identify.
Needless to say although in its pure form it shows an unusual level of consistency in its marking, shape
and colouration, it shows a typical Ophrys adroitness in sharing its genetic offerings with nearby species.
The last two illustrations on this page show firstly a hybrid with O. bertolonii and rather more improbably
the second depicts a cross with O. biancae.
As already mentioned, once in the right area this is not a difficult orchid to locate and (for example) a
walk along most roadside verges in the heart of the Pantallica National Park will soon turn it up.
All picture's date from the second two weeks of April 2011.
