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monk orchid

Habit Plants 20–43 cm.
Roots

fibrous, white, stout.

Leaves

blade nearly erect, olive green with dark green mottling, oblong-elliptic, abaxially keeled, 12–32 × 3.5–5.5 cm, succulent leathery, apex acute.

Inflorescences

lax, 10–42 cm;

peduncles erect, slender, with few remote sheaths.

Flowers

5–15, 9–15 mm wide;

sepals and petals light brown to pinkish green;

sepals 8–12 × 2–3 mm;

dorsal sepal linear-oblong, apex acute;

lateral sepals slightly falcate;

petals oblong-elliptic, 12 × 4 mm, apex acute;

lip white with 2 parallel pink blotches, 9–14 × 8–12 mm, lateral lobes erect, white with thin, radiating purple lines, orbiculate, spur curved, 5 × 2 mm;

column curved, white, 5–7 mm.

Capsules

pendent, elliptic-oblong, to 3.5 cm.

Pseudobulbs

dark green, ovoid to orbicular, 2–5 × 1–3 cm, often concealed by imbricate fibrous sheaths or 1 closely appressed sheath, 1-leaved at apex.

Oeceoclades maculata

Phenology Flowering Aug–Nov.
Habitat In humus under shady forests, in orchards and residential areas
Elevation 0–10 m (0–0 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Africa
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Oeceoclades maculata was first discovered in the United States in Miami-Dade County, Florida in 1974, and is spreading rapidly in central and southern Florida. It is not known whether it escaped from cultivation or arrived in Florida via windblown seeds from the Greater Antilles or the nearby Bahama Archipelago.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 26, p. 641.
Parent taxa Orchidaceae > subfam. Epidendroideae > tribe Cymbidieae > subtribe Eulophiinae > Oeceoclades
Synonyms Angraecum maculatum, Eulophia maculata, Eulophidium maculatum
Name authority (Lindley) Lindley: Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl., 237. (1833)
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