Description: Plant 10-45cm. Basal leaves ovate to lanceolate, subobtuse or acute, the cauline similar, acute. Spike 3- to 8- flowered, lax. Perianth-segments purplish or purplish violet, rarely whitish; outer 6-12mm, broadly ovate, obtuse, glabrous, concave; inner usually 1/3 as long as the outer, broadly triangular, papillose-velutinous. Lower perianth segment (8-)11-14 × 11-14mm, obovate, square or fan-shaped, convex, entire, rarely oblong and notched or indistinctly 3-lobed, purplish-brown, velutinous, usually with a wide, yellow, densely hairy marginal zone, with a hairless appendage, with short, inconspicuous basal protuberances;

Poison: None Known

Uses: Root edible when cooked. It is a source of 'salep', a fine white to yellowish-white powder that is obtained by drying the tuber and grinding it into a powder. Salep is said to be very nutritious and is made into a drink or added to other cereals and used in bread etc. The salep can also be made into a drink. Salep is very nutritive and demulcent. It has been used as a diet of special value for children and convalescents, being boiled with water, flavoured and prepared in the same way as arrowroot. Rich in mucilage, it forms a soothing and demulcent jelly that is used in the treatment of irritations of the gastro-intestinal canal. One part of salep to fifty parts of water is sufficient to make a jelly. The tuber, from which salep is prepared, should be harvested as the plant dies down after flowering and setting seed.

Note: Sawfly Orchid

Distribution: Algeria,  Corsica,  Crete,  Croatia,  East Aegean Islands,  France,  Gibraltar,  Greece,  Italy,  Libya,