Limodorum abortivum(L.) Sw.

Violet Limodore

WFO wfo-0000227653 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Limodorum abortivum, photographed by Michael Knapp
fig. a Michael Knapp, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-30 / obs. 202130373
Limodorum abortivum, photographed by luluchouette
fig. b luluchouette, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204338335
Limodorum abortivum, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. c Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201322938
Limodorum abortivum, photographed by Elias
fig. d Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199964582
Limodorum abortivum, photographed by TOUROULT Julien
fig. e TOUROULT Julien, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197497650
Limodorum abortivum, photographed by Ben Costamagna
fig. f Ben Costamagna, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205843505
Limodorum abortivum, photographed by Ben Costamagna
fig. g Ben Costamagna, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205799082
Limodorum abortivum, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. h Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 190645343

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 34 botanical countries

Regions where Limodorum abortivum is native: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kriti, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaMoroccoTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.IranIraqLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineTranscaucasusTürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBelgiumBulgariaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKritiKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-Europe BalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Limodorum abortivum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 692 in flower of 1,064 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Limodorum abortivum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 692 of 1,064 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 28 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Centrosis abortiva (L.) Sw.
  • Epipactis abortiva (L.) All.
  • Ionorchis abortiva Beck
  • Jonorchis abortiva (L.) Beck
  • Lequeetia violacea Bubani
  • Limodorum abortivum f. brevicornu Rohlena
  • Limodorum abortivum f. brulloi (Bartolo & Pulv.) P.Delforge
  • Limodorum abortivum f. gracile (B.Willing & E.Willing) P.Delforge
  • Limodorum abortivum f. sphaerolabium (Viv.) Soó
  • Limodorum abortivum f. thracum (Presser) P.Delforge
  • Limodorum abortivum f. viridi-lutescens E.G.Camus & A.Camus
  • Limodorum abortivum subsp. gracile B.Willing & E.Willing
  • Limodorum abortivum subsp. mezekii Delip. & Cheshm.
  • Limodorum abortivum var. abbreviatum Gren. & Godr.
  • Limodorum abortivum var. abbreviatum Gren. & Gord.
  • Limodorum abortivum var. anatolicum K.Koch
  • Limodorum abortivum var. sphaerolabium (Viv.) Nyman
  • Limodorum brulloi Bartolo & Pulv.
  • Limodorum generale E.H.L.Krause
  • Limodorum sphaerochilos Spreng.
  • Limodorum sphaerolabium Viv.
  • Limodorum trabutianum subsp. brulloi (Bartolo & Pulv.) H.Baumann & R.Lorenz
  • Limodorum trabutianum subsp. thracum Presser
  • Limodorum trabutianum var. brulloi (Bartolo & Pulv.) P.Delforge

and 4 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.