John and Gerry's    Orchids of Britain and Europe
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Serapias neglecta


This is a species first described by De Notaris in 1848 from Genoa, Italy and which is a member of the large S. vomeracea group of Serapias. It was originally classified as S. cordigera ssp neglecta .

Its similarity to S. cordigera is obvious but in pure  populations it presents characteristics that will readily distinguish it. The first of these differentiators is colouration as S. neglecta tends to be significantly lighter in shade than S. cordigera , where both the epichile and hypochile are most usually a dark crimson to deep coffee colour. In S. neglecta colour varies from salmon pink to yellow/orange and through to the typical and ubiquitous Serapias brick red.
 
Bracts are normally either shorter or the same length as the hood but perhaps the most important diagnostic features are the lateral lobes of the hypochile, which project significantly beyond the hood. The epichile can be extremely broad and because of these prominent lateral lobes, the flower as a whole gives an esthetically pleasing "flowing ball gown" effect.  

S. neglecta has a limited range which takes it from the sub Mediterranean areas of Southern France (mainly the Var), Northern Italy, down to Elba, Corsica, Sardinia and perhaps also the Palermo region of Sicily where work is currently underway to determine the identity of a population showing intermediate characteristics between this species and the widespread S. orientalis v siciliensis. This species is at its most frequent along the Ligurian coast (notably in the region of La Spetzia) and South Eastern France. The photographs come from both of these regions and date from early May.







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