O. malicatana was first described from Andalusia, Spain by Lowe, Phillips and Paulus in 2010 and is a species found only in a limited area of southern Spain and the Algarve of southern Portugal.
The O. fusca grouping in the Mediterranean has historically been confusing and difficult even for experts to truly assimilate. Some of the issues were addressed by Michael Lowe in a paper published by the Journal Europaischer Orchideen in 2010 and we would thoroughly recommend this to anyone wishing to further their understanding of this difficult group of Pseudophrys. From this paper emerged the establishment of O. malacitana as a new species having previously been recognized by Paulus as O. colletes-fusca in 2001.
To quote Kreutz only around half of all known O. fusca group species can be differentiated morphologically with the other taxa mainly recognized by pollinator or flowering period. O. malacitana is an example of this. It has a unique pollinator, flowers early but is difficult to visually separate from the other pseudophrys of southern Spain. It first appears as early as January and any plant could only really be confused with O. lupercalis. There is however a period in late March and early April when it can still be flowering concurrently with other O. fusca species.
O. malacitana has a relatively flat or modestly curved lip, more strongly reflexed at its tip and is covered in purplish hairs, sometimes strongly so. The colouration is deep brown/red and invariably with a thin yellow margin. The pictures date from the first week of April at which time the plants were in decline.
