Dactylorhiza

Orchideae subtribe Orchidinae

Terrestrials arising from tubers, the tubers variously divided into multiple segments of varying shapes. Leaves erect, ovate-lanceolate, subrosulate. Inflorescences pedunculate densely-flowered spicate racemes, the floral bracts green, usually longer than the ovaries and often overtopping the flowers. Flowers most commonly pink with patterned lips. Sepals and petals free, subsimilar, subequal, the lateral sepals often reflexed and erect. Lip obscurely to distinctly three-lobed, spurred, usually shallowly convex. Column erect, with a basal stigma; the pollinia 2, granular, on separate slender caudicles and minute viscidia.

From the Greek dactylos, meaning finger, and rhize, meaning root, referring to the finger-like divisions of the rootstock.

A genus of about 75 species from Europe and temperate Asia as far east as the Himalayas. The genus was previously included in a broadly defined Orchis as Orchis subgenus Dactylorchis Klinge. Species-level taxonomy varies widely between authors with the mo

1 Flowers yellow or red. D. sambucina 1' Flowers white, pink, or purple. 2 2(1') Dorsal sepal erect, not forming a hood with the petals. D. foliosa 2' Dorsal sepal arching, forming a hood with the petals. 3 3(2') Lip midlobe distinct, triangular, acute. D. maculata 3' Lip midlobe +/- distinct, ovate, obtuse. 4 4(3') Leaves boldly spotted. D. majalis 4' Leaves normally not spotted. 5 5(4') Lip less than 0.3 in. (0.8 cm) long. D. incarnata 5' Lip more than 0.3 in. (0.8 cm) long. 6 6(5') Lip pink and white without discreet oblong-elliptic pale pink patches. D. elata 6' Lip with a pair of oblong-elliptic pale pink patches in addition to purple markings in a horse-shoe shape. D. osmanica

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