The orchid is Mediterranean but tends to extend its territory towards the North and the West. It requires both climatic conditions for an orchid to progress territorially but also pollinators. There is speculation about its expansion: seeds carried by the winds, birds, vehicle wheels... It is even reported now in the Netherlands!

Easy to identify because of its color and sometimes its imposing size (but often of modest size: about 15/30 cm), you will sometimes see it at the side of the road on the embankments. It gives off a delicate smell of lily or hyacinth (in my opinion...).

Its seasonality is also strange because for almost all orchids, flowering moves from the South to the North over the weeks of spring, but we find it flowering from the month of February in certain stations in France and still in April in some of the Mediterranean islands further south!

We can even find Himantoglossum hircinum and Himantoglossum robertianum, both in flower on 15/04, on the Villefranche sur Saône motorway service area, north of Lyon. (Personal observation).