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Ophrys insectifera; photograph (c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-04

Ophrys insectifera L.

Fly orchid; Insect Bearing Ophrys

Orchidaceae · Denmark, Finland +29

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Ophrys insectifera, photograph (c) Anne Heckmann, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ophrys insectifera, photograph (c) Anne Heckmann, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ophrys insectifera, photograph (c) Anne Heckmann, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ophrys insectifera, photograph (c) Anne Heckmann, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ophrys insectifera, photograph (c) Anne Heckmann, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ophrys insectifera, photograph (c) Anne Heckmann, some rights reserved (CC BY) 70 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.7°C
Record low -12.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
947mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
8–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Ophrys insectifera, the fly orchid, is a species of orchid and the type species of the genus Ophrys. It is remarkable as an example of the use of sexually deceptive pollination and floral mimicry, as well as a highly selective and highly evolved plant–pollinator relationship.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ophrys insectifera", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (698 mm of 963 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and April to June. Mean temperature moves 17.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and October to December.

Rain

963 mm in the median year at the habitat, 698 mm of it September to January and April to June. Wettest months (2 at 94 mm), driest month February at 62 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 691 mm to 1,416 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 947 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 963 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.7 °C, the absolute minimum -12.7 °C, 1,563 frost nights in 44 years, 35.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -1.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -5.0 °C to 1.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +13 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ophrys insectifera through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -1.1 °C; 963 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-12.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 8–39RH 58–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 317 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 2–87 / 4–1010 / 7–1314 / 10–1518 / 15–2021 / 18–2324 / 21–2624 / 20–2620 / 17–2215 / 12–1810 / 7–126 / 3–9
Night °C-1 / -5–2-1 / -5–22 / -2–44 / 1–68 / 5–1012 / 9–1414 / 11–1614 / 11–1611 / 8–138 / 5–103 / 0–50 / -4–3
Rain mm77 / 47–11362 / 39–9469 / 48–10588 / 51–12494 / 65–13675 / 54–11764 / 41–10770 / 54–11287 / 53–13694 / 68–16091 / 58–14592 / 60–130
DLI10 / 6–1315 / 11–1923 / 18–2731 / 28–3435 / 33–3939 / 35–4339 / 34–4434 / 29–3826 / 20–2917 / 13–2010 / 7–138 / 4–10
RH %65 / 59–6862 / 59–6560 / 58–6360 / 58–6260 / 57–6259 / 56–6258 / 54–6258 / 55–6261 / 58–6364 / 61–6665 / 61–6965 / 60–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 317 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (419 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 894:3834 (45.275, 11.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 317 distinct grid cells holding 419 of the 420 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 894:3834 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.50_11.875, lapse-corrected +13 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 92 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker44.255, 3.455 · in the densest population, 573 records (79% of those in range)
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 723 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 419 of them in the land cells it reads, of 420 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 136 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 184 km away. 303 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 723 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ophrys insectifera, photograph 1did not loadOphrys insectifera, photograph 2did not loadOphrys insectifera, photograph 3did not loadOphrys insectifera, photograph 4did not loadOphrys insectifera, photograph 5did not loadOphrys insectifera, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Anne Heckmann, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Lactuca perennis Lactuca perennis Mountain lettuce Photo: CC BY-SA, Emanuele SantarelliMelica ciliata Melica ciliata Ciliate melic Photo: CC BY, Augustin SoulardTeucrium botrys Teucrium botrys Cut-leaved germander Photo: CC BY, Vladimír FukaOphrys holosericea Ophrys holosericea Late Spider-orchid Photo: CC BY, EliasRanunculus arvensis Ranunculus arvensis Corn buttercup Photo: CC BY, Daniel CahenCirsium tuberosum Cirsium tuberosum Tuberous Thistle Photo: CC BY, Nils Haasler

Other Ophrys 14 in the reference

Ophrys apifera Ophrys apifera Bee orchid Photo: CC BY, kitbeardOphrys × arachnitiformis Ophrys × arachnitiformis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Danielle DurandOphrys bertolonii Ophrys bertolonii Bertoloni's Bee orchid Photo: CC BY, Lídia CarreraOphrys bombyliflora Ophrys bombyliflora Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, F. Bemmerlein-LuxOphrys cretica Ophrys cretica Cretan Bee Orchid Photo: CC BY, F. Bemmerlein-LuxOphrys × flavicans Ophrys × flavicans Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Léo SouillardOphrys fusca Ophrys fusca Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Gary Yong GeeOphrys holosericea Ophrys holosericea Late Spider-orchid Photo: CC BY, EliasOphrys lutea Ophrys lutea Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Gary Yong GeeOphrys omegaifera Ophrys omegaifera Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, F. Bemmerlein-LuxOphrys scolopax Ophrys scolopax Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Lucas BenaicheOphrys speculum Ophrys speculum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Duarte Frade all 15 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Ophrys muscifera f. bombifera; Ophrys musciflora; Orchis insectifera. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Great Britain +28
Wild records
723 in range · 136 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence search API; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.50_11.875, lapse-corrected +13 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…