Oeceoclades maculata (Lindl.) Lindl.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Orchidaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Terrestrial, cespitose herb to 40 cm tall; roots white, numerous, fleshy, 3-6 mm diam; stems pseudobulbous, ovoid, slightly compressed, unifoliate, to 4 cm tall, often covered by scarious bracts. Leaves green with darker mottling, solitary from apex of pseudobulb, subpetiolate; blades 8-25 x 1.5-5 cm, conduplicate, coriaceous, fleshy, oblong to elliptic. Flowers resupinate, 5-15 in racemes to 15 cm long on sparsely bracteate scapes to 25 cm long, secondary racemes sometimes forming in axils of scape bracts; floral bracts inconspicuous, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, shorter than ovary. Sepals 8-14 x 2-3 mm; dorsal sepal lanceolate to linear-elliptic, acute to acuminate; lateral sepals falcate-sigmoid, lanceolate-elliptic, acute to acuminate; petals erect, connivent with the dorsal sepal, elliptic-oblanceolate, acute, about as long as and slightly broader than the sepals; lip concave, pandurate, basal lobes erect, apical lobe subquadrate, emarginate, ca. 8 mm long; spur ca. 4 mm long; column 3-4 mm long; pollinia yellow, attached to a short stipe with a broad viscidium; pedicellate ovary slender, 7-13 mm long. Capsule green, angled, 3-sided, 2-3 cm long.
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Distribution
A rapidly invading species currently known on St. John from one site but expected to spread. Lameshur (A3236). Native to tropical Africa but naturalized in Florida, Panama, South America, and the West Indies.
West Indies| South America| Panama Central America| Florida United States of America North America|