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Ophrys
Also called Spider Orchid
Ophrys is a genus of terrestrial wild orchids, often called bee orchids or spider orchids, whose flowers mimic female insects to attract pollinating males. Most are native to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, and they are grown mainly as wild or hardy terrestrial orchids rather than as common houseplants.
The genus Ophrys is a large group of orchids from the alliance Orchis in the subtribe Orchidinae. They are widespread across much of Europe, North Africa, Caucasus, the Canary Islands, and the Middle East as far east as Turkmenistan.
These plants are remarkable in that they successfully reproduce through pseudocopulation, that is, their flowers mimic female insects to such a degree that amorous males are fooled into mating with the flowers, thereby pollinating them. There are many natural hybrids.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ophrys by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
