Bletia patula Hook.
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
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Family
Orchidaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - A terrestrial orchid, growing on cliffs, banks and rocks in Porto Rico, Santo Domingo, Haiti and Cuba, conspicuous, when in bloom, by clusters of large, purple flowers at the ends of long, sometimes branched, leafless, but sheathed stems (scapes); it is occasional in wet or moist parts of Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations, formerly plentiful, but now much reduced by orchid collectors. It is the only species of its genus found in Porto Rico. Bletia, commemorating L. Blet, a Spanish apothecary, is a genus established by the Spanish authors Ruiz and Pavon in 1798, in one of their classical works on the flora of Peru and Chile. Some 45 species are known, mostly natives of tropical America, and terrestrial. They have globose, or ovoid corms (solid bulbs, or pseudobulbs) with long leaves, and a slender scape, arising from the side, bearing large, purple or pink flowers. The 3, ovate, or oblong sepals are nearly alike, and similar to the petals, the broad, crested lip 3-lobed; the column is elongated, the anther 2-celled. The fruit is an oblong, many-seeded capsule, the seeds minute. Bletia patula (spreading) has globose, transversely annulate pseudobulbs about 5 centimeters in diameter, or smaller, covered with membranous sheaths. Its long-pointed leaves are from 30 to 60 centimeters long and from 2 to 5 centimeters wide, parallel-veined, narrowed into a channeled stalk. The slender scape is usually longer than the leaves, bearing a few, pointed sheaths, and few, or several, purple, spreading flowers on slender stalks, with pointed bracts 4 or 5 millimeters long; the lance-shaped, pointed sepals are about 3 centimeters long, the narrowly spatulate, blunt petals about 1 centimeter wide; the deeply 3-lobed lip is about as long as the petals.
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Discussion
Large Purple Orchid Bletia patula Hooker, Botanical Magazine, plate 3518. 1836.