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Orchis simia
Also called Ape Orchid, Naked Hanging Man
Orchis simia, the monkey orchid, is a wild European terrestrial orchid whose lip looks like a small monkey, and it is rarely grown in gardens. It is a protected species in the UK and is best left in its natural limestone grassland habitat rather than dug up for cultivation.
Orchis simia, commonly known as the monkey orchid, is a greyish pink to reddish species of the genus Orchis. It gets its common name from its lobed lip which mimics the general shape of a monkey's body.
The range of the species is central and southern Europe, including southern England, the Mediterranean, Russia, Asia Minor, Caucasus, northern Iraq, Iran to Turkmenistan and northern Africa where it occurs in grassland, garrigue, scrub and open woodland, chiefly on limestone soils. It is absent from the Balearic Islands, Corsica and Sardinia. On Cyprus the species can be categorized as threatened, and it became a protected species in the UK in 1975 under the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Orchis simia 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
