Accepted Scientific Name: Ophrys х flavicans Vis.
Fl. Dalmat. 1: 178 (1842). Vis.
Ophrys х melitensis Photo by: Amante Darmanin
Maltese spider Orchid, Brimba sewda. Pembroke 28-02-2018. Forming part of a small number of insect orchids that flower in spring, the plant has a velvety reddish brown petal with variable metallic blue markings in the centre of it.
Origin and Habitat: Ophrys melitensis is native to Malta.
Habitat and ecology: This species colonizes garrigue, rocky steppes and meadows. As for other Ophrys species, the flowers of these plants show mimicry in that they look like other insects; insects of the opposite sex would try to mate with the flower, in the process pollinating it. The pollinator of the Maltese Spider Orchid is Chalicodoma sicula. O. melitensis is quite rare.
Synonyms:
See all synonyms of Ophrys x flavicans
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Accepted name in llifle Database:Ophrys х flavicans Vis.Fl. Dalmat. 1: 178 (1842).Synonymy: 55
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Common Names include:
ENGLISH: Maltese Spider Orchid
MALTESE (Malti): Brimba sewda, il-brimba s-sewda, Brimba Sewda ta. Malta
Description: Ophrys melitensis is a perennial orchid, growing from a tuber that reaches a height of 15 to 25 centimetres. The shape and colour of the labellum is variable and can carry different, light blue-metallic drawings, usually in the form of a downwardly open horseshoe or a vertical equal sign. Occasionally, this drawing is missing. However, always a small appendix can be seen in front.
Derivation of specific name: (Latin) melitensis = from or related to the Maltese islands. Maltese, concerning the islands of Malta .
Leaves: Flat, lanceolate.
Flowers: Reddish-brown or purplish black and velvety, with light to dark brown hairs of varying density and length along the margin. The labels is usually dark reddish-brown with a paler hairy margin, two humps on the sides, and a pale appendage (tooth) in the middle. The speculum (spot of the labellum), is usually bright to dull metallic-blue in colour and very variable in shape, includes two thin or thick vertical lines, short or tall, parallel or diverging; 2 wavy lines; 2 lines, one shorter than the other; a single transverse line; a downwardly open horseshoe, or an H-shape. There are also specimens that have no speculum on the lip. The same plant can have flowers with different speculum on different flowers. The lip can be wide or thin. The lateral petals are greenish or brownish (or dark brown), and usually wavy. On occasions petals can be whitish or pink/purple. The sepals are usually broad and and variable from green, to yellowish-green, whitish-green, pink, to even almost white, sometimes tinged brown, curving towards the lip, or with a green/brown middle vein.
Blooming season: Spring (between the month of March and May).
Taxonomy: The species was first described in 1992 by Hans-Erich Salkowski as subspecies of the Great Spider Orchid (Ophrys sphegodes), only two years later, Jean Devillers-Terschuren and Pierre Devillers set up as a separate species. Other authors consider this Maltese plant as an hybrids between the Great Spider Orchid and Bertoloni's Orchid (Ophrys bertolonii) and thus as part of the hybrid complex Ophrys x flavicans. In the northeast of the island a single hybrid of Ophrys melitensis and either Ophrys speculum, Ophrys fusca or Ophrys bertolonii has been found.
More...Bibliography: Major references and further lectures
1) Hans Christian Weber, Bernd Kendzior: "Flora of the Maltese Islands - A Field Guide", p 30-34, 2006
2) Henrik Ærenlund Pedersen, Niels Faurholdt: "Ophrys. The Bee Orchids of Europe". Kew Publishing, p. 223, 2007
3) Alex Casha “Flora of the Maltese Islands” Lulu.com
4) Darrin Stevens, "Maltese spider orchid – il-brimba s-sewda - Close-ups of Maltese nature plants around us" Times of Malta, January 19, 2013, web: https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130119/environment/Maltese-spider-orchid-il-brimba-s-sewda.453817
5) Paul Portelli "The endemic spider orchid" Times of Malta, Wednesday, April 11, 2012, web: https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120411/environment/The-endemic-spider-orchid.414924
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Ophrys melitensis, Maltese spider Orchid, Brimba sewda. Pembroke 28-02-2018. Photo by: Amante Darmanin
Ophrys melitensis, Maltese spider Orchid, Brimba sewda. Pembroke 28-02-2018. Photo by: Amante Darmanin
