We have been to Sicily before, staying in the north at Taormina, and outside the orchid flowering season. This time were slap bang in the middle of it. I made enquiries on line and received some very useful information of several helpful folk. Unfortunately that information covered much of what is the Med's largest island, so I settled on the southeast corner, based in Siracusa. This gave us opportunities for a lot more things than just orchid trips. The excursions would be limited to the limestone area west of Siracusa, in the Monte Eblei area, which I could see was orchid rich. The biggest problem was that while there were plenty of potential sites to investigate as we drove along, most were places where you couldn't park or safely walk along the road, or were fenced off with barbed wire. We didn't want to upset and Sicilian farmers with dogs and shotguns, especially when neither had any way of explaining that we were just photographing flowers in Italian!

For identification I have relied on Orchidee d'Italia published by Gruppo Italiano per la Ricerca sulle Orchidee Spontanee. While the text is in Italian some can be deciphered and the photos are good. Back upwas provided by Delforge.

The tourist guides warn you about driving practices in Sicily. True they will double park on a main road or sidestreet blocking it and will nip out in front of you if there is a car length gap to fill. However, I found them to be courteous letting you cross in front of them, and attentive to their driving. Unlike Crete the roads are pothole free - apart from in the towns. Just be aware that many of the inland towns were built before cars, and even a main road into the centre can have cars packed such that you have just inches to squeeze through. Finding your way out again can be a game of trial and error. Not all directions signs were correct either!

In total I saw 35 species, subspecies and varieties. Those marked * are new to me (21), and those ! are also endemic to Sicily (I think)

Ophrys bertolonii bertolonii
Op. bertolonii explanata *!
Op. tenthedrenifera grandiflora *!
Op. bombilifera
Op. lutea
Op. sicula
Op. panoramitana *!
Op. incunacea
Op. speculum
Op. lunulata *!
Op. lunulata x panoramitana *!
Op. panoramitana x incubacea *!
Op. oxyrrhynchos oxyrrhynchos *
Op. oxyrrhynchos biancae *!
Op. oxyrrhynchos callintha *!
Op. fusca casiella *!
Op. fusca calocaerina *!
Op. fusca sabulosa *!
Op. subfusca archimedea *!
Op. exaltata exaltata *
Op. sphegodes graseona *!
Himantoglossum robertianum
Orchis italica
O. anthropoporum
Anancamptis longicornu
A. pyramidalis
A. Papilionacea grandiflora *!
Neotinea lactea
N. lactea var alba *
N. tridentata
N. commutata
N. lactea x tridentata hybrid
Serapias orientlais siciliensis *!
S. bergonii
S. lingua
S. intemedia hyblatae *!
D. nurrica *