Longclaw Orchid

Plants to 70 cm. Roots numerous, 18 cm × 2–6 mm. Stems subterranean, obscured by roots. Leaves glabrous; petiole erect, reddish, slender, 9–20 cm, usually longer than blade; blade green, lanceolate to broadly elliptic, 9–15 × 3.5–7 cm, base cuneate, margins entire to crenulate, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences: peduncle reddish, satinlike, glabrous proximally, pubescent distally, with a few distant, sheathing bracts, 28–65 cm; racemes 3–11-flowered. Flowers spindly; sepals green, narrowly lanceolate, 21–30 × 6–7 mm, apex acuminate; dorsal sepal projecting over column; lateral sepals spreading; petals green, linear, 19–21 × 3 mm, apex acuminate; lip recurved, attached to column foot, white, ovate, lamina notched distal to middle, margins fringed, 2 cm, apex acuminate; spur adnate to ovary for 8–9 mm, cylindric, 15–17 mm, free portion curved, 7–9 mm; column semiterete, 8–10 mm, apex pointed; pedicellate ovary 1.5–2.3 cm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Capsules 18–25 mm; spur persistent.

Fla.; West Indies; n South America.

Flowering Jan--Mar.

In humus of moist hardwood hammocks; 0--30m.

Neottia calcarata Swartz, Fl. Ind. Occid. 3: 1413, plate 28. 1806; Centrogenium setaceum (Lindley) Schlechter; Pelexia calcarata (Swartz) Cogniaux; P. setacea Lindley; P. setacea var. glabra Cogniaux; Spiranthes calcarata (Swartz) Jimenez; Stenorrhynchus calcaratus (Swartz) Richard