Family - ORCHIDACEAE
Genus - Aceras
Species - anthropophorum
Common English name - Man orchid
Common Spanish name - Flor del hombre ahorcado (the hanged man flower)
Flowering time - April - June
Following recent molecular biological studies there is currently a movement to re-classify the genus Aceras into the Orchis genus but, for now, both the Spanish Royal Botanical Gardens, Flora Ibérica, and the European botanical encyclopedia, Flora Europaea, still give the accepted taxon for Man orchid as Aceras anthropophorum.
Anyhow, it's an unmistakeable orchid, the petals resemble the form of a human figure topped by the sepals forming a hood. The colour of the unspurred flowers varies from a pale yellowish to green, usually tinged with red.
The basal, rosette-forming leaves are unspotted and shiny. Look for these limestone-loving plants on well-drained hillsides.
