Mediterranean region.
A slender plant with a loose spike of flowers; lip is rather narrow in comparison to its breadth; ground colour a dense blue-black or brown; speculum usually blue but can be reddish-brown or violet; often with a narrow yellow margin. Scrub, maquis, garigue, olive groves, pine woods. Ophrys fusca sensu lato, (what Delforge (2006) calls the O. fusca group) can be split into a number of more narrowly-defined species.
Upper photograph: near Almeria, S Spain 2005.
© John Page.
Lower photograph: North Cyprus 2003.
© Alan Hill.
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