Dactylorhiza


Dactylorhiza is a genus of flowering plants in the orchid family Orchidaceae. Its species are commonly called marsh orchids or spotted orchids. Dactylorhiza were previously classified under Orchis, which has two round tubers.

Description

They are hardy tuberous geophytes. In a thickened underground stem, they can store a large amount of water to survive arid conditions. The tuber is flattened and finger-like. The long leaves are lanceolate and, in most species, also speckled. They grow along a rather long stem which reaches a height of. Leaves higher on the stem are shorter than leaves lower on the stem. The inflorescence, compared to the length of the plant, is rather short. It consists of a compact raceme with 25-50 flowers. These develop from axillary buds. The dominant colors are white and all shades of pink to red, sprinkled with darker speckles.

Taxonomy

Etymology

The name Dactylorhiza is derived from Greek words δάκτυλος daktylos 'finger' and ῥίζα rhiza 'root', referring to the palmately two- to five-lobed tubers of this genus.

Species

Many species in this genus hybridise so readily that species boundaries themselves are vague, with regular name changes and no clear answers. A few species colonise very well onto fresh industrial wastes such as pulverised fuel ash, where vast hybrid swarms can appear for a decade or more, before ecological succession replaces them.
34 species are accepted.

Hybrids

accepts the following inter-specific hybrids.
Note : nothosubspecies = a hybrid subspecies; nothovarietas = a hybrid variety.
  • Dactylorhiza × abantiana – Turkey
  • Dactylorhiza × altobracensis – Austria, France, and Italy
  • Dactylorhiza × alutiiqorum – Aleutian Islands
  • Dactylorhiza × aschersoniana
  • *Dactylorhiza × aschersoniana nothosubsp. aschersoniana – W. & C. Europe
  • *Dactylorhiza × aschersoniana nothosubsp. ishorica – northwestern European Russia
  • *Dactylorhiza × aschersoniana nothovar. mulignensis – Germany and Switzerland
  • *Dactylorhiza × aschersoniana nothosubsp. predaensis – Austria and Switzerland
  • *Dactylorhiza × aschersoniana nothosubsp. templinensis – Germany
  • Dactylorhiza × baicalica – Buryatia
  • Dactylorhiza × balabaniana – Lebanon and Turkey
  • Dactylorhiza × bayburtiana – Turkey
  • Dactylorhiza × beckeriana – Germany
  • Dactylorhiza × boluiana – Turkey
  • Dactylorhiza × braunii – Spain to central Europe and Ukraine
  • *Dactylorhiza × braunii nothosubsp. braunii – Spain to central Europe and Ukraine
  • *Dactylorhiza × braunii nothosubsp. lilacina – Czechoslovakia
  • Dactylorhiza × conigera – France, Great Britain, and Iceland
  • Dactylorhiza × daunia – Greece and Italy
  • Dactylorhiza × delamainii – France
  • Dactylorhiza × drucei – Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, and Iceland
  • Dactylorhiza × dubreuilhii – France and Spain
  • Dactylorhiza × dufftiana – France to middle Europe and the Baltic states
  • Dactylorhiza × erdingeri – Austria, Czechoslovakia, and France
  • Dactylorhiza × flixensis – Switzerland
  • Dactylorhiza × fourkensis – Greece
  • Dactylorhiza × gabretana – Germany
  • Dactylorhiza × grandis – Benelux, France, Great Britain, and Sweden
  • Dactylorhiza × guilhotii – France and Great Britain
  • Dactylorhiza × guillaumeae – France and Italy
  • Dactylorhiza × gustavssonii – Greece and Turkey
  • Dactylorhiza × hallii – Belgium, France, Great Britain, Netherlands
  • Dactylorhiza × influenza Austria, Italy
  • Dactylorhiza × katarana – Greece
  • Dactylorhiza × kerneriorum – western and central Europe and East European Russia
  • * Dactylorhiza × kerneriorum nothosubsp. ampolai – Austria, France, Ireland, Italy, and Switzerland
  • * Dactylorhiza × kerneriorum nothosubsp. kerneriorum – Spain to Poland, Romania, and eastern European Russia
  • * Dactylorhiza × kerneriorum nothosubsp. lillsundica – Austria, France, and Sweden
  • Dactylorhiza × latirella – Germany, Great Britain, and Ireland
  • Dactylorhiza × lehmannii – Germany
  • Dactylorhiza × megapolitana – Germany
  • Dactylorhiza × metsowonensis – Austria, Italy, France, Great Britain, Ireland, and Norway
  • Dactylorhiza × ornonensis – France
  • Dactylorhiza × perez-chiscanoi – Spain
  • Dactylorhiza × rizeana – Turkey
  • Dactylorhiza × rombucina – Italy
  • Dactylorhiza × ruppertii – Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, and Switzerland
  • Dactylorhiza × salteri – Great Britain
  • Dactylorhiza × senayi – Spain to Czechoslovakia and Sweden
  • Dactylorhiza × serbica – Italy and Yugoslavia
  • Dactylorhiza × sivasiana – Turkey
  • Dactylorhiza × szaboiana – Romania
  • Dactylorhiza × vallis-peenae – Germany
  • Dactylorhiza × venusta – Great Britain and Ireland
  • Dactylorhiza × viridella – Great Britain and Ireland
  • Dactylorhiza × vitosana – Bulgaria
  • Dactylorhiza × vogtiana – Turkey

Distribution and habitat

These terrestrial orchids grow in basic soils in wet meadows, bogs, heathland and in areas sparsely populated by trees. They are distributed throughout the subarctic and temperate northern hemisphere. It is found across much of Europe, North Africa and Asia from Portugal and Iceland to Taiwan and Kamchatka, including Russia, Japan, China, Central Asia, the Middle East, Ukraine, Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, etc. Inclusion of the widespread frog orchid, often called Coeloglossum viride, into Dactylorhiza as per some recent classifications, expands the genus distribution to include Canada and much of the United States.