Limodorum underdeveloped

Family Orchidaceae. Limodorum is a monotypic genus, widespread in Crimea, the Caucasus and Southern Europe. It grows in light pine, broad‑leaved, juniper and mixed forests on dry, usually calcareous soils, and requires warmth. Listed in the Red Data Book.

Saprophyte, with a short rhizome from which numerous thick roots arise. Stems 40–80 cm high, light greenish‑purple, thick. Leaves are reduced to scaly sheaths, blunt, numerous. Inflorescence a raceme, erect, up to 33 cm long, not dense, with 6–20 flowers. Bracts ovate‑lanceolate, acute, purple in the upper half of the flower stem, exceeding the ovary, up to 5 cm long. Flowers large, lilac. Perianth segments erect, outer ones oblong‑lanceolate, up to 2 cm long, inner ones shorter and narrower. Labellum light lilac, up to 1.7 cm long, with a long, thin, downward‑facing spur. The posterior part of the labellum is narrow, the anterior part broad, up to 9 mm wide, obtuse, with slightly wavy margins. Ovary on a short stalk, not twisted. Flowers in May–June. In dry years the stem cannot break through to the surface, and in this case both flowering and seed ripening may occur underground. L. underdeveloped has the largest seeds of all European orchids (with the exception of the true lady's slipper (С. calceolus)), the dimensions of which — 1.5 mm — are simply astonishing. Seedling development is very complex and slow. The plant produces above‑ground shoots only after 8–10 years of subterranean existence.

Highly ornamental. However, it is impossible to grow it in cultivation: it is completely dependent on its "own" mycelium, and therefore very sensitive to any, even the slightest, changes in the environment.