Orchis spitzelii

Orchis spitzelii
Photo: Richard Thoma, 12/06/2009, near Saalfelden, Austria

Spitzel’s Orchid

Orchis spitzelii belongs to the medium-sized plants of the genus and has a height of 20 to 40 cm. The 2 to 7 foliage leaves are rather big and broad, green and unspotted, they form a rosette. The cylindrical inflorescence has 10 to 25 flowers. The sepals are rather short, the sepal in the middle forms a hood with the small petals. The labellum is three-lobed and wider than long, with the lateral lobes bent downwards. The middle lobe is protruded and often squarrose. The spur is coned and mostly bent downwards. The flowers are pollinated by bees and bumblebees.

Orchis spitzelii
Photo: Richard Thoma, 18/06/2009, near Saalfelden, Austria

Taxonomic discussion

The name of the species refers to the Bavarian forester Anton von Spitzel (1807-1853) who found the plant in the Alps near Salzburg in 1835. Anton Eleutherius Sauter (1800-1881) named it after von Spitzel. The scientific description was done by Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch in his “Synopsis florae germanicae et helveticae” (1837/38).

Orchis spitzelii
Photo: Richard Thoma, 18/06/2009, near Saalfelden, Austria

White colour of flowers

The flowers of Orchis spitzelii are mostly pink to purple with darker spots on the labellum especially in its middle part. Pure white-flowered plants are very rare. They have green sepals and petals while these are olive-green to reddish with the standard form.
H. Kretzschmar/W.Eccarius/H.Dietrich (Die Orchideengattungen Anacamptis, Orchis, Neotinea. 2007, p.387) present a white flowering plant of the subspecies cazorlensis in Spain.

Habitat, bloom and distribution

Orchis spitzelii is growing in forests and on alpine meadows and pastures, up to 2100 m. Bloom is from May to June. Distribution is limited to certain regions from Spain to Turkey with a remarkable location on the Swedish island of Gotland.