!Barlia robertiana (Loisel.) Greuter 1967 Photo by © Piotr Markiewicz
Plant and Flowers in situ Photo courtesy of Th. Pain and the Orchids of France and Europe
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Common Name Robert's Barlia [French Orchid Collector 1800's]
Flower Size 1 1/4" [3.25 cm]
Found as a small to large sized, cold to cool growing terrestrial in Libbya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Balaeric Islands, France, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, Yugoslavia, the Aegean Islands, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey where it is found on grassy hillsides, in woodland clearings and among scrub at elevations of sealevel to 1100 meters with large ovoid or ellipsoid tubers and 5 to 10 oblong-elliptic, acute or obtuse, glossy green leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a short to 4 to 6" [10 to 15 cm] long, cylindric, densely many flowered, racemose inflorescence with bracts that exceed the flowers and carries fragrant, nodding, campanulate flowers, after which it needs a drier summer followed by a wetter winter after the new growth appears.
Synonyms Aceras longibracteata (Bivona) Rchb. fil. 1833; Barlia longibractea (Bivona) Parlatore 1858; Himantoglossum longibracteatum (Bivona) Schlechter 1914; Himantoglossum robertianum (Loisel.) P.Delforge 1999; Loroglossum longibracteatum (Bivona) Mori ?; Orchis foliosa Masson ex Ker Gawl. 1819; Orchis fragrans Ten. 1811 ;. Orchis longebracteata F.W. Schmidt 1791; Orchis longibracteata Bivona-Bernardi 1806; *Orchis robertiana Loisel. 1807
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 54 No 1 1985 photo; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Encylopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Himantoglossum robertianum; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Laurent 1992; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchds Pridgeon 1992; Orchids of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East Delforge 2005 as Himantoglossum robertianum
