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Germany, Ukraine

This orchid is common throughout the whole of Europe, including the British Isles, except for Portugal (Tyteca & Bernardos 2003), Mallorca (Beniston & Beniston 1999), Cyprus (Kreutz 2004) and the Faroe Islands (Fig. 2). The southern boundary of its range extends from Spain, through mainland Italy to Sicily and Sardinia, across the Balkan Peninsula to the southern Peloponnese and Crete, the Middle East (Turkey, northern Iran), the Caucasus, Middle Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan), Afghanistan, Pakistan to north-west Himalaya (India; Jalal2012). The eastern border extends almost to Lake Baika in south-eastern Siberia (regions of Irkutsk, Krasnoyrsk; Vakhrameeva et al. 2008). The northern border runs southwardsfrom the Arctic Circle in Siberia westwards acrossthe European part of Russia (including the Kola Peninsula; Blinova 2008), Ukraine, Belarus, Baltic states, and northernScandinavia to Iceland. In North America, N. ovata occursas an introduction in southern Ontario in Canada. It was first discovered near Red Bay in the Bruce Peninsula (Elliott& Cook 1970), and in 1980, a second colony was found in south-western Wellington County (Anderson & Goltz 1982).

Eurytopic species. It grows in deciduous broadleaved and mixed woodland, forest edges, scrub, hedgerows, and sun-exposed habitats such as dry meadows, pastures, calcareous grassland, sand dunes, fens, and floodplains. In Ukraine, it occurs in meadow steppe areas (Zagulskii 1990). Secondary occurrences are found in gardens, parks, cemeteries and disturbed habitats, such as the edges of roads and railways (Vakhrameeva et al. 1991). In northern areas, it grows in forests and boreal rich fens, and marginally on mineral elevations surrounded by Sphagnum bogs and heather moorlands (Brzosko & Wroblewska 2003; Vakhrameeva et al. 2008). In mountains, it may reach the communities of the subalpine belt, where it occurs on the banks of rivers and brooks (Vakhrameeva et al. 2008).

Mycorrhizas are formed by both seedlings and adult plants. In adults, hyphal coils (pelotons) are found in roots (Fig. 3d), though many roots may be devoid of mycorrhiza (Downie 1949; Rasmussen 1995), while the rhizome of adult plants are free of mycorrhizal colonization. Molecular identification of the fungi associated with adults in a meadow and woodland over Europe revealed Sebacinales Clade B (Serendipitaceae) as the dominant mycorrhizal symbionts (Jacquemyn et al. 2015; Oja et al. 2015; Tesitelov a et al. 2015), and whose ability to form pelotons was confirmed by electron microscopy (Fig. 3e; Tesitelova et al. 2015). Less frequently Ceratobasidiaceae and Tulasnellaceae (former rhizoctonia), ectomycorrhizal fungi, such as Thelephoraceae, Sebacinales Clade A (Sebacinaceae), Russulaceae, Hymenogastraceae, Amphinema, and Tylospora from Atheliaceae, and numerous presumably endophytic ascomycetes and Basidiomycota were also found (Jacquemyn et al. 2015; Oja et al. 2015; Tesitelova et al. 2015).

Neottia ovata has no rosette and usually two, rarely three or four, opposite leaves positioned at the top of the vegetative shoot, or in the middle part of generative shoot. The plant has a thick perennial rhizome with numerous, long and cord-like adventitious roots (Ziegenspeck 1936). Roots grow slowly in topsoil rich in humus and minerals (Ziegenspeck 1936). The horizontal rhizome shows sympodial growth (compared to seedlings with monopodial growth) and produces one new internode and 2–4 roots. Ziegenspeck (1936) reported a plant with 24 shoot remains on a rhizome with 60 roots. The roots are thinner than in most of other members of the tribe Neottieae and have a narrower phloem zone compared to non-autotrophic members of the tribe (Ziegenspeck 1936). Chromosome number: 2n = 34 (Hoffmann 1929, L€ovkvist & Hultgard 1999; D’Emerico, Pignone & Scrugli 2000)