Contribution to the knowledge of the genus <i>Dactylorhiza</i> ( <i>Orchidaceae</i> ), and the first record of <i>Dactylorhiza traunsteineri</i> (Saut. ex Rchb.) Soó in Croatia

This paper provides critical notes on several taxa of the genus Dactylorhiza in Croatia. Flora Croatica Database (FCD) lists 12 taxa of Dactylorhiza, but the presence of some of them in Croatia is questionable. According to our long-term field research, after checking the relevant literature and herbaria, and discussing the problems of misidentifications in the field, which seems to be quite constant, we established that only seven species and one subspecies are present in Croatia. It appears that D. maculata s. str., D. cordigera , D. incarnata ssp. ochroleuca and D. incarnata ssp. cruenta are not present in Croatia, and we propose to remove them from the list of national flora. Dactylorhiza saccifera is present in Croatia, but its incidence is overestimated due to misidentification. Furthermore, it is proposed to change the nomenclature for D. fuchsii (Druce) Soó ssp. transsilvanica (Schur) S. E. Fröhner, the name currently used in the FCD, to D. maculata (L.) Soó ssp. transsilvanica (Schur) Soó, which is a more appropriate combination that is used in contemporary literature. The presence of D. traunsteineri in Croatia was based on old literature from 1938 that turned out to be erroneous. However, in our recent survey in 2024,we discovered an important population of this species in the Lika Region, providing the first record of this species for Croatia. From a taxonomic point of view, this species belongs to the very complex D. traunsteineri species group, and we briefly discuss the position of this somewhat geographically isolated Croatian population. We also discovered several plants of D. × duftii , a natural hybrid between D. incarnata and D. traunsteineri , which is a new taxon in the Croatian flora. Also, since the FCD does not list Dactylorhiza hybrids, we present and describe all known hybrids found in the literature, as well as the results of our field research.