O. maritima was first described as a subspecies by Pacifico and Soca from Montignoso, Tuscany in 2011 and subsequently promoted to a full species in 2015. Its name refers to the taxons seeming preference for coastal habitats. The formal recognition of O. garganica came as the result of a paper by Nelson, Danesh, Danesh and Ehrendorfer in 1975 and its name is a reference to the site of its initial discovery, the Gargano promontory.

The Ophrys of peninsula Italy have attracted much research over the last two decades and this has resulted in a significant number of new species being described, the ranges of which are in several cases still not full understood. This large group of Ophrys exhibit a high degree of natural variation and have always presented botanists with a challenge with species separation. Distinguishing them is further complicated by the presence of large populations of intermediate plants arising from introgressive hybridization.

The photos here depict Ophrys from a substantial mixed colony of O. maritima and O. garganica near the coast between Livorno and Grosetto. The two species share identical flowering times and were therefore
simultaneously receptive to cross pollination, potentially by the same pollinating species. It should be mentioned however, that other species were close by and could also have contributed to the gene sharing.

The pictures date from the first week of April.