O. metaurensis
was first described from Urbania, Italy by Klaver and Kreutz in 2021 and was named after the nearby River Metauro that runs to the south of the Locus typicus on Mt Turin.
Separating the Ophrys of peninsula Italy is to say the least difficult and made all the more so by a proliferation of new species over the last two decades, many of which (as with O. metaurensis) do not as yet have an accurately defined distribution. This situation when coupled with natural variation and introgressive hybridization poses a significant problem with differentiation but O. metaurensis does possess some characteristics that are useful indicators.
It is not a hugely variable orchid, being a small flower, not dissimilar to O. incantata from across the Adriatic, with a dark brown lip, poorly developed basal swellings and a broad yellow margin. Of particular note is the perianth which features sepals that are normally a washed out pale green, often suffused with a greyish purple mottling to the lower quadrants that suggests a brush with an O. mammosa species somewhere in its ancestry. The petals are also distinctive, being long, sometimes very long and several shades darker than the sepals, frequently with an orange/brown suffusion at the base.
O. metaurensis is an Italian endemic whose range as far as its known is limited to the Marche region of central Italy to the south of San Marino. The photos are from an area on the Marche/ Umbrian border dating from the middle of April.
Separating the Ophrys of peninsula Italy is to say the least difficult and made all the more so by a proliferation of new species over the last two decades, many of which (as with O. metaurensis) do not as yet have an accurately defined distribution. This situation when coupled with natural variation and introgressive hybridization poses a significant problem with differentiation but O. metaurensis does possess some characteristics that are useful indicators.
It is not a hugely variable orchid, being a small flower, not dissimilar to O. incantata from across the Adriatic, with a dark brown lip, poorly developed basal swellings and a broad yellow margin. Of particular note is the perianth which features sepals that are normally a washed out pale green, often suffused with a greyish purple mottling to the lower quadrants that suggests a brush with an O. mammosa species somewhere in its ancestry. The petals are also distinctive, being long, sometimes very long and several shades darker than the sepals, frequently with an orange/brown suffusion at the base.
O. metaurensis is an Italian endemic whose range as far as its known is limited to the Marche region of central Italy to the south of San Marino. The photos are from an area on the Marche/ Umbrian border dating from the middle of April.
