Plant 5-30 cm tall with 2-11 flowers. Lateral sepals green, strongly suffused with violet to reddish brown. Petals usually a little paler, violet to brown. Lip with strongly recurved margin; side lobes obliquely linear-oblong, 2-4.5 times as long as wide, straight and divergent, mid-lobe obovateoblanceolate, 2-4 times as long as wide.
Subsp. regis-ferdinandii is endemic to an area encompassing some of the easternmost Aegean islands (viz. Chios, Samos, Tilos, Simi and Rhodes) and immediately neighbouring parts of southwestern Anatolia. On Chios and Rhodes, this subspecies is widespread and fairly common. On Samos, on the other hand, it is very rare and only found in the southwestern part of the island. [Aeg; Ana].
