O. phryganae is one of 4 members of the O. lutea group and was first described from Crete in 1991.
Its name refers to the plant Phrygana which gives its name to a habitat type, particularly in Greece
(in France it would be called Garrigue).
Although widespread through the central and eastern Mediterranean it is not generally found in the huge numbers that can be the case with O. sicula and O. lutea. The fact that it grows individually or in small groups and often amongst large colonies of its commoner bretheren probably accounts in part for the its percieved scarcity. In fact we suspect it is a much overlooked orchid that is probably locally common
With practice, identification is not as difficult as we first thought it to be and there are probably
two important features to look for when trying to differentiate it from its cousins. The first of these
is size, which is small and probably half the size of O. lutea. The second feature is the flowers side on profile and pictures 1 and 4 amply show the prominent basal prominences which give the lip the look of
a knee joint. This characteristic is difficult to observe face on as can be seen from the other photo's.
O. sicula is a similar size but its longtitudinal profile is comparatively flat.
A further characteristic that differentiates it from O. lutea is the angle at which flowers are held
relative to the stem. With O. lutea this is usually no more than 45 degrees whereas both O. phryganae
and O. sicula hold them almost horizontally and ocassionally even beyond this.
The photo's are from Lesbos, Attica, Gargano and Sicily.
