Ophrys battandieri
Ophrys battandieri is a species of flowering plant in the family Orchidaceae, native to Spain and northwest Africa, and possibly elsewhere. Ophrys murbeckii may be treated as a synonym.
Description
Ophrys battandieri is a slender plant growing from tall. The lower leaves are arranged in a basal rosette, while the upper leaves are erect. The lax inflorescence has four to ten flowers. Plants observed at Tikjda in Algeria had three to seven flowers. Flowers have olive-green to yellowish-green sepals. The two lateral sepals are bent forward, while the dorsal sepal is bent over forming a hood. The two pale yellow to yellowish-green lateral petals are relatively large and have wavy margins. The labellum or lip is long and, possibly up to long. The background colour of the labellum is dark or reddish brown with a broad yellow margin up to wide and a straight and narrow, lighter base. The apex of the lip is three-lobed, the lateral lobes being shorter than the middle lobe. The speculum or mirror has an irregular shape. Its centre is shiny, ranging in colour from greyish-blue through blue to light purple. The outer edges of the speculum are usually separated from the yellow margin by a reddish-brown outline.Taxonomy
Ophrys battandieri was first described by Edmond Gustave Camus in 1908. The specific epithet battandieri honours the French botanist Jules Aimé Battandier, who made a major contribution to the study of the flora of Algeria.Morphologically, the species resembles others placed in the Ophrys lutea group. It has been synonymized with or treated as a subspecies of O. subfusca. It has also been confused with hybrids between O. fusca and O. lutea. In 2010, it was resurrected as a separate species in a synonymic index of the flora of North Africa.
, although some sources, including Plants of the World Online, regard Ophrys murbeckii as an independent species, others, including World Flora Online, treat O. murbeckii as a synonym of O. battandieri.