S. sennii was first described from the Greek island of Kythera by Renz in 1928 and is named in honour of the Swiss botanist G.A.Senn. It is a member of the S. orientalis group of Serapias.
It has a somewhat disjunct distribution in the Aegean region, comprising the southern Peleponnese including Kythera, the island of Kea in the Cyclades archipelago and then the Dodecanese islands of Kos and Samos, It is suspected to have a wider range but this has yet to be confirmed. S. sennii is a rare species which grows in small numbers in only a few widely scattered locations. This is a plant of dry grassy meadows, wasteland, phrygana and abandoned terraces on predominately alkaline soils. It seems to appreciate a degree of cover and will frequently grow alongside bushes and shrubs.
This is not the easiest of the Serapias group to separate as most of its characteristic features can be exhibited by its cousins. It is often therefore necessary to employ the wholly unscientific formula of the balance of probabilities. S. sennii is few flowered, with 2 or 3 being usual, these generally being orange or light brown/red coloured with a wide separation of the lateral lobes of the hypochile.The inflorescence is short and the bracts rarely exceed the length of the hood. The plant is small in stature (up to 20cms) and usually rather weedy with a small number of clasping, often broad, longish lanceolate leaves. The stem is usually tinged red, particularly at the leaf axils.
The photographs come from Samos and the Peloponnese dating from mid April.
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