These plants from the eastern regions of Black Sea are indicated by western botanists as Orchis purpurea subsp. caucasica. They differs from subsp. purpurea mainly in the smaller flowers and the violet helmet.

Yes, I think you are correct. But it looks the same with plants which is placed in our website in Orchis maxima C. Koch. Orchis maxima is the synoniym of Orchis purpurea subsp. caucasica with combination "Orchis purpurea subsp. maxima Soo" but "Orchis maxima C. Koch" in Euro+Med Checklist is the synonym of Orchis purpurea subsp. purpurea. The plants of Orchis maxima in our website is the same like Orchis purpurea subsp. caucasica from Turkey in many orchid books. I think that our "maxima" is the same with O. p. subsp. caucasica.

Maybe it is another taxonomic confusion. According Kew Garden Checklist http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/qsearch.do;jsessionid=92F0BE1F86F08CE5ECA5ACE60CF52588 Orchis maxima is the synonym of Orchis purpurea ssp. purpurea. Kretschmar et al. in his book The Orchid Genera Anacamptis, Orchis, Neotinea writes: "Orchis purpurea ssp. caucasica is not identical to Orchis maxima, as this name is based on plants from the surroundings of Bursa (Turkey), where only Orchis purpurea ssp. purpurea appears". The distribution area of Orchis purpurea ssp. caucasica is clear: in the east of Strait of Kerch should only ssp. caucasica occur. That´s why the two plants from your site of Orchis purpurea should belong to ssp. caucasica. Furthermore O. purpurea ssp. caucasica grows in north-eastern Turkey and further to the east. All the plants that are in your site of O. maxima are identical to O. purpurea ssp. caucasica.

OK. I replace these two plants to "O. maxima" (to be together with other such plants) and make a note in the description of this taxon that the right name is Orchis caucasica. The taxa system in the website is based on the Vherepanov's Checklist so the renaming of the taxon is problematic.