Photos of Greek Orchids in Pelion, Greece

Greek Orchids

"But very high on the list of wonders is the plant orchis, or serapias, which has the leaves of leek, a stem a span high, and a purple flower. The root has two tubers, like testicles. The Greeks speak of a satyrion that has leaves like those of the lily, but red."

Pliny the Elder, "A Natural History"

The first to use the term orchis to describe orchids, was the Greek philosopher

Theophrastus. Orchis is the Greek word for testicle and, although Theophrastus was the first to mention it, he probably wasn't the first to observe the resemblance between the roots of some terrestrial orchids, which vegetate in Europe, and that part of the male anatomy. It is no wonder, then, that orchids were prized aphrodisiacs in ancient times.

Some 400 years later, in a study called "Materia Medica", a Greek physician named

Dioscorides, who worked as surgeon for the Roman army, compiled information about 500 medical plants and, among them, he included two orchid varieties, which, he conjectured, influenced sexuality.

There are currently c. 25,000 species of orchids in the wild, and there are over 110,000 hybrids created by hand pollinating species to obtain crossings with improvements in flower shape, color, and longevity.


		Orchis laxiflora Enjoy some pictures of the Lax-flowered or Jersey Orchid, which is particularly common in the vicinity of Horton, Pelion, but only occurs on the island of Jersey, in Britain.
		Orchis morio picta Check the Green-Winged Orchid, a beautiful flower that blooms in the spring, on the lower slopes of Mt. Pelion.
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