Serapias cordigera Linne 1763 Photo courtesy of Th. Pain and the Orchids of France and Europe

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Common Name The Heart-Shaped Lip Serapias

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in all of Mediteranean Europe, Portugal, Libyia, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and the Azores Islands in dry to wet grasslands, scrub or light pine, oak or chestnut forests at elevations of sealevel to 600 meters as a small to medium sized, cold to cool growing terrestrial orchid with 2 to 3 subterranean, ovoid to globose tubers giving rise to a stem carrying 5 to 8, lanceolate leaves that blooms on a terminal, erect, 8" [20 cm] long, laxly few to several [4 to 15] flowered inflorescence with large brown papery bracts that almost cover the showy flowers occuring in the spring.

Synonyms Helleborine cordigera (L.) Pers. 1807; Lonchitis cordigera (L.) Bubani 1901; Serapias atlantica D.Rückbr. & U.Rückbr. 1994; Serapias azorica Schlechter 1923; Serapias cordigera f. ochrantha Landwehr 1977; Serapias cordigera subsp. azorica (Schltr.) Soó 1927; Serapias cordigera subsp. cretica B.Baumann & H.Baumann 1999; Serapias cordigera subsp. olbia (Verg.) H.Sund. 1980; Serapias cordigera subvar. curvifolia (J.A.Guim.) E.G.Camus 1928; Serapias cordigera subvar. leucantha (J.A.Guim.) E.G.Camus 1928; Serapias cordigera subvar. leucoglottis (Welw. ex Rchb.f.) E.G.Camus 1928; Serapias cordigera var. curvifolia J.A.Guim. 1887; Serapias cordigera var. leucantha J.A.Guim. 1887; Serapias cordigera var. leucoglottis Welw. ex Rchb.f. 1851; Serapias cordigera var. mauritanica (E.G.Camus) E.Nelson 1968; Serapias cossyrensis B.Baumann & H.Baumann 1999; Serapias gregaria Godfery 1921; Serapias lorenziana H.Baumann & Künkele 1989 ; Serapias olbia Verg. 1908; Serapias ovalis A. Rich. 1818; Serapias vomeracea var. mauritanica E.G.Camus 1908; Serapiastrum cordigerum (L.) A.A.Eaton 1908

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