Our wild orchids, those little bees.

José Manuel Caraballo, one of the naturalist experts of Environmental Ideas, was sitting in front of his computer drinking tea after “pooping” all day, and decided to write to us about wild orchids. Pulling out books and putting them on the bed has come to this:

In botany, orchids are like birds of prey. They are the ones that first attract attention because of their difficulty in finding them and because of their undoubted beauty. Within orchids, he decided to write to us about a very special genre, the genus Ophrys, also generally known as bumblebees. Your name”Ophrys” derives from the Greek word: “ophrys” =” eyebrow”. Ophrys is mentioned for the first time in the book “Natural History” by Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD).

Distribution and Habitat

Orchids are generally present from the Equator to the Polar Circle, from the plains to almost the limit of perpetual snow in the high mountains, terrestrial, epiphytic, lithophytes, parasites, even underground.

Las Ophrys are distributed from central and southern Europe, Africa, Asia Minor, reaching the Caucasus mountains, but mainly in the Mediterranean basin. They are considered to be the most important group of terrestrial orchids in Europe. The genus as a whole shows clear preferences for calcareous (calcareous) soils and for the sun (heliophilous) for its development. But some species also admit tolerance to acidic or humid soils. They inhabit thickets, thickets, more or less impoverished pastures and open areas.

Description

Orchids are usually small perennial herbs, with a more or less defined basal rosette of leaves, and others Caulinares smaller in size, without stains. They have underground, globular, and small tubers from which the flower stem emerges.

The inflorescences are clusters with few flowers (pauciflorous), with flowers they are very showy. Two to twelve flowers develop on each flower stem. Flowers are unique, not only because of their unusual beauty, color gradation and exceptional shapes, but also because of the ingenuity with which they attract insects. Its labellum mimics several insects such as bees, bumblebees, beetles or wasps, attracting and deceiving the pollinator.

The central sepal is more or less concave and in many species it seems to form a small helmet over the spine. The lateral sepals, open, are green, pink or whitish.

The lateral petals are usually smaller, sometimes filiform, similar in color to that of the sepals.

The labellum is the largest and most striking structure. In most species, it is shaped like an insect and is divided into three lobes, the lateral lobes with a very variable morphology and layout; the central one generally bulging, with the apex starting from appendiculate (O. scolopax), low cut (O. dyris) the revolt (O. tenthredinifera). It can have varying degrees of hairiness, drawings, glasses, ridges.

In the center of the flower is the column. Its base has the stigmatic opening or cavity, and above it rises the part of the column that houses the two pollinia, each with a long caudicle and independent dispersion.

In many species, the sides of the stigmatic opening have two small, shiny bumps that may look like the eyes of an insect and are therefore called false eyes.

The ovary is sessile and the fruits contain up to 10,000-15,000 seeds.

Growth Cycle

During the summer, these orchids are at rest (that is, they lose their aerial part and survive the heat and drought of summer thanks to their underground tubers, which serve as a reservoir of water and nutrients). During the summer, then, the entire aerial part dries up and, when autumn arrives, with a little cooler weather and rain, the leaves of the basal rosette usually develop, which remain during the winter. This allows the formation of a new tuber to begin during the fall. Its development almost stops during the winter and accelerates the following spring. The formation of the inflorescence occurs at the expense of the nutrients stored in the old tuber, not the new one, which will act the next year. When the aerial part dries, the old tuber is practically exhausted. Flowering occurs not every year. It seems that the plant must accumulate matter for more than a year, increasing its weight and the number and size of its leaves.

Pollination

Although they are pollinated by numerous insects (beetles, butterflies, bees, flies,...) it should be noted the importance of the Hymenoptera family (Bees and Pralet Wasps). : Andrena, Eucera, Colletes and Campsoscolia) for having developed an effective sexual lure to attract male individuals to these some of them exclusively. This sexual deception, or pseudocopulation, is due to the fact that the labellum of Ophrys imitate females. These sex-crazed people are capable of falling into the trap and keep their pollen sacs stuck to their heads (cephalic pollination) or abdomen (abdominal pollination).

This different way of pollinating causes the genus to be divided into two sections: If the insect is arranged with its head facing into the flower, it would be the section Ophrys, the largest of its kind. If, on the other hand, the insect looks out of the flower and carries the pollinaries (pollen sacs) over the abdomen, this would be the section Pseudophrys, less numerous but no less taxonomically complex.

Deception is not only visual, but also tactile and even olfactory. The relationship is quite specific. Hymenoptera males usually emerge from the nymph before the females and attempt to copulate with orchids with great enthusiasm. A pseudocopulation can last from a few seconds to a quarter of an hour. Despite such a refined system, natural hybridization seems to be very common.

The flowers of Ophrys they also produce aromatic substances. They don't have exactly the same pheromones that female insects secrete, but they do have a good amount of substances whose combination should also be attractive and stimulating for males. This set of scents seems vital in speciation processes but is inaccessible to us humans. On the contrary, the visual factor, which we appreciate well, may be of secondary importance to pollinators. In some cases, the resemblances to an insect are very evident in hairiness, blemishes, ridges, eyes, etc.

Each species of Ophrys has its own insect pollinator and is completely dependent on this pollinator species for its survival. What's more, deceived males are likely to never return or even ignore plants of the same species. For all this, only about 10% of the population of Ophrys becomes pollinated. This is enough to maintain the population considering that each fertilized flower produces 12,000 tiny seeds.

Other important characteristics in speciation processes are the size of the labellum, which constitutes a pollinator selection mechanism, and the flowering season, because males learn and after a certain time they ignore orchids and dedicate themselves to searching for their true females. Therefore, they should take advantage of “inexperienced” males and plants that bloom comparatively early will be favored. A late bloom can take advantage of another pollinator species or a second generation of the same species. Therefore, this would support temporary speciation processes.

Main species present in the Iberian Peninsula

• Ophrys apifera,
• Ophrys atlantica
• Ophrys aveyronensis
• Ophrys bertolonii
• Ophrys bombylifrora.
• Ophrys dyris
• Ophrys gr. fusca
• Ophrys insectifera
• Ophrys lutea
• Ophrys gr. scolopax
• Ophrys speculum
• Ophrys gr. sphegodes
• Ophrys subinsectifera
• Ophrys tenthredinifera
• Ophrys vernixia

Hybrids

Another wonder that attracts the difficulty of this genus are the hybrids that we can find in Europe due to cross-pollination and that can lead even more to taxonomic difficulties in identifying certain species. I recommend the studios of Othmar und Edeltraud Danesch”Orchideen Europe: Ophrys Hybrid” and that of Rémy Souche”Hybrides d'Ophrys du bassin mediterranéen Occidental”.