O. persephonae was first described by H. F. Paulus from Rhodes in 2001 and is named after the mythical Greek queen of the underworld, Persephone. It belongs to the small three member O. blitopertha group together with the newly described O. urteae from Turkey.
 
O. blitopertha and O. persephonae both find a home in the eastern Aegean, although the former is rather more widespread, ranging from the Cyclades, through the Aegean basin into Anatolia. The latter species is to be found only on Rhodes, Chios, Kos and in south west Turkey, all of which are areas where the range of the two species overlap. Morphological differentiation is not particularly difficult but distinguishing them is most easily achieved by study of the plants growing position. O. blitopertha is slender (often weedy) with few flowers and will be growing in a full sun position. O. persephonae on the other hand will never tolerate open, arid positions and is invariably found in open pine woods, rarely on shady verges.

As can be seen from the illustrations O. persephonae can be variable, it is however always a robust orchid of 30-40cm with up to 10 individual flowers that frequently exhibit an orange or even red lip margin rather than the yellow more frequently encountered with O. blitopertha. The labellum is longitudinally quite flat and moderately convex transversely with lateral lobes that tend to retreat behind the sinuses.

The photographs are all from Chios and date from the third week of April.