Monk Orchid

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.

Plants 20–43 cm. Roots fibrous, white, stout. 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. 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.

Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; Africa.

Flowering Aug--Nov.

In humus under shady forests, in orchards and residential areas; 0--10m.

Angraecum maculatum Lindley, Coll. Bot., plate 15 and text on facing page. 1821; Eulophia maculata (Lindley) Reichenbach f.; Eulophidium maculatum (Lindley) Pfitzer