Orchids are one of the most fascinating flowers of the world. More than 20.000 different species are estimated. Most of them live in the tropical and subtropical ecosystems of the new and the old world. But also in Europe, especially in the Mediterranean region, and perhaps also in your direct environment wild orchids can be found.

More and more people take interest in orchids. A couple of books appeared on the market and in nearly every country orchid associations have been found. Without doubt it is a good thing to make people aware of the nature. On the other side the booming orchid tourism makes more and more problems, especially in regions where orchids can not often be found. So in case of doubt we have to do our hobby without taking pictures.

The subject of this work is not to tell you something about history or distribution of native orchids in Europe. We want to show you the hybrids, one of the most fascinating aspects of wild orchids. Have a look at the pictures and you will see. We also describe genetic abnormalities like wrong structures and wrong colors, for example albinos. Naturally we can not show you every possible hybrid combination and genetic abnormality, but we will keep it up to date.