Serapias linguaL.

Tongue-orchid

WFO wfo-0000309419 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Serapias lingua, photographed by Mourad Harzallah
fig. a Mourad Harzallah, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-21 / obs. 199709586
Serapias lingua, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. b Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 197287636
Serapias lingua, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. c Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 196794969
Serapias lingua, photographed by Davide Puddu
fig. d Davide Puddu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195825625
Serapias lingua, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. e Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 194768148
Serapias lingua, photographed by Martiño Cabana Otero
fig. f Martiño Cabana Otero, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194306051
Serapias lingua, photographed by Carminda Santos
fig. g Carminda Santos, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194825982
Serapias lingua, photographed by Davide Puddu
fig. h Davide Puddu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192838851

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 18 botanical countries

Regions where Serapias lingua is native: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, East Aegean Is., Türkiye, Albania, Baleares, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain AlgeriaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaEast Aegean Is.TürkiyeAlbaniaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpain BalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Serapias lingua, 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
Baleares BAL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
East Aegean Is. EAI ASIA-TEMPERATE
Türkiye TUR

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.

Also published as 45 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.

  • Damasonium lingua (L.) L.
  • Helleborine leucoglottis Steud.
  • Helleborine lingua (L.) Pers.
  • Helleborine oxyglottis (Willd.) Pers.
  • Lonchitis oxyglottis (Willd.) Bubani
  • Orchis lingua (L.) Scop.
  • Serapias brevibracteata St.-Lag.
  • Serapias columnae (Rchb.f.) H.Fleischm.
  • Serapias excavata Schltr.
  • Serapias glabra Lapeyr.
  • Serapias hirsuta var. reichenbachiana Rouy
  • Serapias laxiflora var. columnae Rchb.f.
  • Serapias lingua f. abnormis Cortesi
  • Serapias lingua f. humilis A.Terracc.
  • Serapias lingua f. leucantha (J.A.Guim.) F.M.Vázquez
  • Serapias lingua f. minima F.M.Vázquez
  • Serapias lingua f. nana E.G.Camus
  • Serapias lingua f. pallidiflora E.G.Camus
  • Serapias lingua f. tenuis F.M.Vázquez
  • Serapias lingua lus. kuemmerlei Soó
  • Serapias lingua subsp. excavata (Schltr.) Soó
  • Serapias lingua subsp. oranensis Kreutz, Ait-Hamm., Babali, Miara & Rebbas
  • Serapias lingua subsp. oxyglottis (Willd.) Soó
  • Serapias lingua subsp. veneris Balayer

and 21 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.