S. guadinae was first described from Lecce by Lumare, Medagli and Biagioli in 2017 and is named after the ancient town of Guadina, now Aquatina di Frigole in the province of Lecce.

This orchid is of hybridogenous origin with S. cordigera and S. longipetala its progenitors. It may occur as a casual hybrid wherever the range of the two taxons converge but in the Salento peninsula, hybridization and successive introgression has given rise to a population of plants with stabilized reproduction, independent of the original parent species. At present it is best known from the coastal areas to the east of Lecce where it was closely studied, described and formally designated a species.

The area of southern Italy from which S. gaudinae hails is one in which Serapias species are many and varied, so it's perhaps not a great surprise that hybridization is commonplace and further that several of these crosses have evolved into stabilized communities. Separating S. lucana, S. gaudinae and S. sallentina (all hybridogenous species from Salento) is not easy and despite stabilized reproduction having eventuated, they still exhibit sufficient variation to create problems with identification. The fact that S. cordigera is one of the gene contributors to all these hybrids is inconvenient and in reality, only careful scientific analysis can really distinguish them. S. gaudinae is a smallish plant but with 4 to 8 large flowers held alternately up the short inflorescence. A key distinguishing feature is the stem which is invariably yellowy green with a varying degrees of red staining around the leaf axils. Bracts are usually shorter or equal in length to the hood.

The pictures are from an area just to the north of San Cataldo near Lecce, dating from the 9th of May.