Bee orchid facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Bee orchid
D. laxiflora growing in Cranbrook, Western Australia.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Orchidaceae
Subfamily:	Orchidoideae
Tribe:	Diurideae
Genus:	Diuris
Species:	D. laxiflora
Binomial name
Diuris laxiflora Lindl.
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The Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) is a truly remarkable wild flower, mostly found across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It's famous for its incredible ability to make its flowers look and even smell just like a female bee! This clever trick helps it get male bees to spread its pollen, which is how plants make seeds.

Description

• Size and Growth: Bee Orchids usually grow to be about 15 to 50 centimeters tall, which is like the height of a ruler or a little taller. In the autumn, they start by growing small groups of leaves close to the ground, called rosettes. These leaves slowly grow bigger during the winter, getting ready for spring. They have a neat pattern of veins that run straight, almost like tiny parallel lines.
• Blooming Time: When does this amazing plant show off its bee-like flowers? In many parts of Europe, you can see them blooming from mid-April. But if you're in the United Kingdom, you'll have to wait a bit longer, usually from June to July. Each plant sends up a tall stem with a few flowers on it – sometimes just one, but often up to twelve!

The Flower's Clever Design

• Sepals: First, you'll notice three large, often purple, leaf-like parts that surround the base of the flower. They look so much like petals that you might mistake them for the main show!
• True Petals: Just above these sepals are the orchid's real petals. There are two small, fuzzy, green ones that stick out from the sides.
• The Labellum (The "Bee" Part!): But the most exciting part is the third petal, which is super special and called the "labellum." This is the part that looks just like a fuzzy, plump bee! It sits at the bottom of the flower, acting like a landing pad for visiting insects. The labellum has three main sections, with two little bumps on the sides and a bigger middle part. This middle part is covered in tiny hairs and has a pattern of colors that perfectly mimics the body of a female bee. The colors can be quite different from one orchid to another, making each "bee" unique!
• The Central Column: Orchids have a very unique part called the central column. This is where the parts that make pollen (like stamens) and the part that receives pollen (the pistil) are all joined together. At the very top of this column is where the pollen is stored in little packets called pollinia, ready to be picked up by a visiting bee.

Destribution

The Bee Orchid is quite a traveler! You can find it in many different places across the world.

It's widespread across central and southern Europe, stretching all the way from Portugal and Ireland in the west, across to Iran and the Caucasus mountains in the east. You can also find it in North Africa and parts of the Middle East. It's especially common around the sunny Mediterranean Sea and eastward towards the Black Sea.

As you go further north, like in Germany or Ireland, the Bee Orchid becomes a bit rarer. In the United Kingdom, it loves the southeastern parts of England the most. But don't be surprised if you spot it in other places too! Recently, it's been found in the southwest of England, in coastal areas of Wales, and even in some parts of Northern Ireland. For a while, people thought it had disappeared from Scotland, but it was happily rediscovered in Ayrshire in 2003!

Habitat

Bee Orchids aren't too picky about where they live, as long as it has a few key things.

They generally like places with semi-dry grass, open grasslands, or areas with limestone rock. You might also find them in sandy dunes near the coast or in sunny, open spots within woodlands. They prefer soils that drain water well, don't have too many nutrients, and are rich in calcium (like limestone). They can grow in bright sunshine or in slightly shady areas.

What's really cool is that Bee Orchids are great at moving into places that humans have changed. You can often find them growing in old quarries, along the grassy edges of roads, or even on old airfields! They are one of the most likely European orchids to set up home right inside towns and cities.

To get all the food and nutrients they need from the soil, Bee Orchids have a secret weapon: tiny, helpful fungi! These fungi, often from a group called Tulasnella, live in the orchid's roots and help it absorb nutrients. It's a special partnership called a symbiotic relationship, where both the orchid and the fungi help each other.

Threats

Bee Orchids can be threatened by things like mowing too early in the year, especially before their seeds have had a chance to spread. They also don't like it when their sunny spots get overgrown by bigger bushes and trees, as they need light to grow. That's why you often see them on the edges of mown areas or next to paths where they get just the right amount of light and space. Some wildlife experts suggest mowing these areas in late July and removing the cut grass to help the Bee Orchids thrive.

How They Make More Orchids

This is where the Bee Orchid's amazing trick really shines!

In many northern places, Bee Orchids are quite independent. They can actually pollinate themselves! This means the pollen from one flower can fertilize the same flower, making seeds without needing help from insects.

But in warmer places, like around the Mediterranean Sea, they get a lot of help from a special kind of solitary bee called Eucera longicornis. Here's how the trick works:

• The labellum (the bee-shaped petal) of the Bee Orchid looks incredibly similar to a female Eucera longicornis bee.
• Even more amazing, the flower releases special scents that smell exactly like the perfume of a female bee! These scents are called allomones.
• When a male Eucera longicornis bee flies by, it sees and smells what it thinks is a female bee. It gets completely fooled and tries to "hug" or "cuddle" with the flower, thinking it's found a mate!
• While the bee is trying to interact with the flower, tiny packets of pollen, called pollinia, stick firmly to its body.
• When the confused bee flies off to another Bee Orchid and tries the same trick, it leaves some of the pollen behind, helping that orchid make seeds. Other bee species, like Tetralonia cressa and Eucera pulveraceae, can also be attracted by these clever tricks.

Starting Life: Like all orchids, Bee Orchids need a special boost to start growing. Their tiny seeds need to connect with those helpful fungi in the soil. This can take a long time, sometimes months or even years, before you see a little plant sprout above ground!

What's in a Name?

The first part of its scientific name, Ophrys, comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "eyebrow." Legend has it that women in ancient Rome used to use parts of this orchid plant to darken their eyebrows, giving it its name! The second part, apifera, comes from Latin and means "bee-bearing" or "bee-bringing." This clearly refers to how the flower looks just like a bee!

The Story of Salep

Long ago, in the Ottoman Empire (which is now mostly Turkey and surrounding areas), people would grind the root tubers of orchids, including the Bee Orchid, into a powder called "salep." They believed this powder was very nutritious and had special healing powers. Its popularity spread to England in the 1600s and 1700s and then to other European countries. Today, salep is still used in traditional medicines and delicious dishes in Turkey and throughout the Middle East. It's also imported by countries like the Netherlands, Cyprus, and Germany for its supposed health benefits.

Keeping Them Safe

Even though Bee Orchids are clever, they still need our help to survive.

One big threat comes from people harvesting too many wild orchids, especially in places like Turkey and Iran, to make salep products. This can lead to local extinctions, meaning the orchids disappear from those areas forever. Also, because Bee Orchids rely so much on their tiny fungi friends, they can be harmed by chemicals like fungicides, which are designed to kill fungi. Anything that reduces the number of these helpful fungi can hurt the orchids. As we learned, mowing at the wrong time or letting areas become too overgrown also poses a risk.

Their Status: Because of these threats, the Bee Orchid has special protection in many places:

• It's a protected species in Northern Ireland.
• It's considered Endangered (EN) in Turkey, Ukraine, and the Carpathian Mountains.
• It's even Critically Endangered (CR) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, meaning it's at a very high risk of disappearing.

To help protect these amazing plants, there are international rules. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has listed the Bee Orchid as an endangered species that could be traded. This means there are strict rules about buying and selling products made from it, like salep. Countries like Turkey, Iran, Germany, the Netherlands, and Cyprus are all part of CITES and must follow these rules. In fact, Turkey has even banned the export of true salep made from orchid roots to help protect its wild orchids.

Family Tree

Just like you belong to a family, the Bee Orchid belongs to a big plant family tree! Scientists use a special system to classify all living things.

Here's where the Bee Orchid fits in:

• Kingdom: Plantae (This means it's a plant!)
• Phylum: Tracheophyta (It's a vascular plant, meaning it has tubes to carry water and nutrients)
• Subphylum: Angiospermae (It's a flowering plant!)
• Class: Liliopsida (It's a monocot, a type of flowering plant)
• Order: Asparagales
• Family: Orchidaceae (This is the big orchid family!)
• Subfamily: Orchidoideae
• Genus: Ophrys (This genus, or group, has over 200 different species of orchids in Europe and the Mediterranean!)
• Species: Ophrys apifera (This is our specific Bee Orchid!)

Different Kinds of Bee Orchids

Even within the Ophrys apifera species, there are slightly different versions, like different breeds of dogs or cats! These are called varieties. Some examples include:

• Ophrys apifera var. apifera (the most common type)
• Ophrys apifera var. aurita
• Ophrys apifera var. bicolor
• Ophrys apifera var. immaculata (which means "spotless" – maybe it has fewer patterns!)
• Ophrys apifera var. trollii

Each of these varieties might have tiny differences in their appearance, like the exact shape or color pattern of their "bee" labellum.

Interesting Facts About Bee Orchids

• One of the most interesting things about Bee Orchids is how they appear. Some years, you might see huge numbers of them growing everywhere, like a big party! Then, for several years, they might disappear completely, only to pop up again later. It's like they're playing hide-and-seek! Because they are so special, some countries have given them protected status, meaning people need to be careful not to harm them.
• The Bee Orchid is so loved that it's the official county flower of Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom!
• This beautiful orchid has even appeared on postage stamps in many countries around the world, including Belgium, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
• In 2009, it was featured on a series of stamps in the UK to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's famous book, "Origin of Species", which talked about how living things change over time.
• Scientists have also studied the Bee Orchid's flowers and found interesting natural chemicals inside them, like special plant compounds called quercetin and kaempferol glycosides, and other compounds related to cinnamic acid.
• The pink parts of the flower get their lovely color from natural pigments called anthocyanins.