O. rhodostephane was first described by Devillers and Devillers-Terschuren from Hvar Island, Croatia
in 2004. Its name means "with a pink crown" ( rhodo = pink, stephane = crown ) and its a member of
the 20 strong O. oestrifera group.
This is an orchid with a curious range that's based on the islands and coastline of Dalmatia but with an
outpost across the Adriatic on the eastern coast of Italy in Puglia. Its not a common species anywhere
but this is particularly so in its Italian stations where it can be very difficult to find indeed. The
Gargano peninsula is one of its haunts but its becoming increasingly threatened by habitat loss due to
deforestation. Most of the members of this group show a tolerance for degree's of shade but this is a
species which seems to prefer such conditions and the photograph's accompanying this text come from
a colony that was thriving in mixed pine and deciduous forest, where some of the plants were growing
away from clearings, in practically full shade.
The species name infers that the sepals and petals are characteristically pink and indeed most text
books describe O. rhodostephane as being distinctive by virtue of the depth of colour they display.
In the three colonies which we have studied (all in Gargano), we have yet to find a deep pink specimen
and in fact the closest to such a description we have yet found is that depicted in photo 4. White and
extremely pale pink are the dominant forms and one wonders if the Italian population needs further
study ?
All the photograph's are from Gargano and date from the first week of May.
