Serapias lingua

Tuberous perennial of the Orchidaceae family, widespread throughout the Mediterranean basin, from the Atlantic coasts of Portugal and France to Greece, Cyprus, and North Africa. It is present in France mainly in the South and in Corsica.

It colonizes dry to fresh grasslands, open garrigues, lean meadows, roadsides, and clear maquis, always in full light or slight partial shade, on calcareous or siliceous substrates, from the plain up to about 800 meters.

The plant is modest in size, reaching 15 to 35 cm in height, with an upright stem bearing lanceolate, upright, slightly sheathing leaves of medium green sometimes veined with purple at the base. The floral spike is sparsely populated, usually bearing two to eight spaced flowers, each subtended by a large pink to purplish bract.

The flower is the most remarkable element of the species. The labellum, elongated and hanging, evokes a tongue projected forward, hence the name of the species. It is pink to pink-gray, traversed by darker veins, with a well-visible brown-violet basal callosity at the entrance of the tube formed by the erect and connivent sepals and petals. This floral arrangement, which simulates a thermal shelter, attracts certain solitary insects that take refuge there at night, thus ensuring pollination by pseudocopulation or thermoregulation according to the authors. In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from April to June.

Delicate to cultivate outside its environment, it requires well-drained, poor soil with appropriate mycorrhizae. It is generally not recommended in conventional cultivation and is mostly observed in situ.