Prescottia oligantha (Sw.) Lindl.
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Authority
Ackerman, James D. 1995. An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 73: 1-203.
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Family
Orchidaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants terrestrial, glabrous (except roots), to 40 cm tall. Roots several, fasciculate, fleshy and fingerlike, 3-8 mm diam. Leaves basal, 2-4; petioles 1-3 cm long; blades entire, cuneate, elliptic to suborbicular, acute to rounded, membranous, 1.5-8 cm long, 0.8-3 cm wide. Inflorescences slender, erect; scape 12-31 cm tall, partially covered by sheathing bracts; spike to 17 cm long, densely many-flowered; floral bracts ovate to lanceolate, acuminate, clasping the base of the ovary, 1.5-4 mm long. Flowers minute, glabrous, nonresupinate. Ovary subsessile, 1.5-3.5 mm long. Sepals pinkish, 1-nerved, basally connate, reflexed-spreading, 1-2.2 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide; dorsal sepal ovate, reflexed, curled; lateral sepals triangular to deltoid, connate with lip, forming a mentum, slightly larger than the dorsal sepal. Petals white or pink, basally adnate to column and sepals, reflexed, narrowly obovate to oblong, 1-1.5 mm long, 0.5 mm wide. Lip uppermost, white, erect, forming a short mentum with the lateral sepals, fleshy, basally auriculate, cucullate, enclosing the column, shallowly saccate, apiculate, 1-2 mm long. Column dorsally adnate to sepaline tube, minute, winged at apex. Fruits erect, ellipsoidal, ca. 4 mm long.
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Discussion
1. Prescottia oligantha (Swartz) Lindley, Gen. Sp. Orchid, pl. 454. 1840. Cranichis oligantha Swartz, Nov. Gen. Sp. P L Prodr. 120. 1788. Type. Swartz s.n., from Jamaica (BM). Phenology & Pollination. Our plants flower during the winter and are probably autogamous.
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Distribution
General Distribution. Central America, Florida (U.S.A.), the Galapagos Islands, Mexico, tropical South America, and West Indies.
Central America| United States of America North America| Ecuador South America| Mexico North America| South America| West Indies|