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This is a rare species, similar in appearance to P.chlorantha apart from greener-coloured flowers and it favouring a very different habitat. It grows in acidic conditions, such as marsh, damp
meadows and pasture. In Europe this species is restricted to a few sites in Corsica,
Sardinia, mainland Italy and Spain but it also occurs in Algeria from where it was first described.
The plants described here were seen in Sardinia in early
June when they were in full flower. Generally 25-40cm tall with leaves (less rounded
than P.chlorantha) almost clasping
the stem, although this may be due to the fact that they grew in dense clumps
of sedge. The
flowers similar in size
and shape to P.chlorantha but an intense, almost translucent green
rather than
the greeny-white of the latter. In the majority of plants the lip
was turned under itself as in the picture to the right although a few
showed the vertical lip as seen in the lower-right image. The plants were growing in heavily grazed wet pasture
and all plants seen were growing singly in the centre of a tussock rather than in the
surrounding sward. At many if not most sites this species is under threat
because of drainage of its habitat. |