Serapias orientalis(Greuter) H.Baumann & Künkele

WFO wfo-0000309470 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Serapias orientalis, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. a Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-20 / obs. 189696753
Serapias orientalis, photographed by TOUROULT Julien
fig. b TOUROULT Julien, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196876905
Serapias orientalis, photographed by Dmitry Ivanov
fig. c Dmitry Ivanov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194265875
Serapias orientalis, photographed by Riccardo Rocca
fig. d Riccardo Rocca, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189638677
Serapias orientalis, photographed by Katerina Kalogerini
fig. e Katerina Kalogerini, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 62038652
Serapias orientalis, photographed by Ben Costamagna
fig. f Ben Costamagna, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189637628
Serapias orientalis, photographed by Todd Boland
fig. g Todd Boland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 120496126
Serapias orientalis, photographed by Wouter Van Landuyt
fig. h Wouter Van Landuyt, CC0 1.0 / obs. 65516930

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 13 botanical countries

Regions where Serapias orientalis is native: Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Sicilia, Türkiye-in-Europe CyprusEast Aegean Is.Lebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineTranscaucasusTürkiyeGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.SiciliaTürkiye-in-Europe
Native distribution of Serapias orientalis, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Greece GRC EUROPE
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Sicilia SIC
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE

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 63 in flower of 64 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Serapias orientalis 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. 63 of 64 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 9 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 50 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.

  • Serapias apulica (H.Baumann & Künkele) P.Delforge
  • Serapias apulica subsp. brundisina Lumare & Medagli
  • Serapias apulica subsp. messapica Lumare & Medagli
  • Serapias apulica subsp. neretina Lumare & Medagli
  • Serapias apulica subsp. uxentina Gennaio
  • Serapias brundisina (Lumare & Medagli) Biagioli, Kreutz, Lumare, Medagli & De Simoni
  • Serapias carica (H.Baumann & Künkele) P.Delforge
  • Serapias carica var. monantha P.Delforge
  • Serapias cordigera subsp. orientalis (Greuter) H.Sund.
  • Serapias cordigera subsp. patmia (M.Hirth & H.Spaeth) Kreutz
  • Serapias cycladum H.Baumann & Künkele
  • Serapias dafnii (B.Baumann & H.Baumann) Kreutz
  • Serapias feldwegiana H.Baumann & Künkele
  • Serapias ionica H.Baumann & Künkele
  • Serapias istriaca Perko
  • Serapias levantina H.Baumann & Künkele
  • Serapias levantina subsp. dafnii B.Baumann & H.Baumann
  • Serapias levantina subsp. feldwegiana (H.Baumann & Künkele) H.Baumann & R.Lorenz
  • Serapias levantina var. dafnii (B.Baumann & H.Baumann) P.Delforge
  • Serapias messapica (Lumare & Medagli) Biagioli, Kreutz, Lumare, Medagli & De Simoni
  • Serapias neglecta subsp. ionica (H.Baumann & Künkele) H.Baumann & R.Lorenz
  • Serapias neglecta subsp. ionica E.Nelson
  • Serapias neglecta subsp. istriaca (Perko) H.Baumann & R.Lorenz
  • Serapias neglecta var. ionica E.Nelson

and 26 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. 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.