The distribution is fragmented and encompasses several areas in the central and eastern Mediterranean. Confirmed finds are known from Sicily, Puglia, Basilicata, the southern Peloponnese, Kithira, Crete, Rhodes and southwestern Anatolia. Reports from Samos should be checked, and a more widespread occurrence in Greece does not seem unlikely. [Aeg, Cre, Ita, Sic; Ana].
Plant 15-45 cm tall with 2-7 flowers. Foliage leaves still fresh at the peak of flowering. Sepals rose-coloured to white (less frequently violet), 11-15 × 4-8 mm, 3-5(-6) times as long as the petals. Petals 2-4.5 × 1.5-3 mm. Lip with reddish brown to dark brown ground colour, nearly straight, circularquadrate with somewhat recurved sides (less frequently flat), 9-14 × 12-16 mm; appendage upcurved, less than half as long as the column; mirror covering half to two thirds of the lip, pronouncedly marbled, delimited by a broad, (very nearly) unbranched, cream band.
