Hexalectris spicata

Stems: sheathing bracts 3-5. Inflorescences: floral bracts lanceolate to triangular-ovate, 5-10 × 2-6 mm. Flowers 5-25; pedicels 8-20 mm; lateral sepals oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceolate, falcate, apex acute; petals weakly to strongly recurved, elliptic, oblong-obovate, oblanceolate, or obovate, falcate; lip ovate to obovate, clawed, shallowly 3-lobed, fissure between lobes less than 2 mm deep, middle lobe ovate to suborbiculate, margins undulate, apically rounded to truncate, lateral lobes incurved, broadly rounded to obtuse, margins entire, apically triangular to rounded; lamellae 5(-7), central, purple to white; column white to yellowish white, apically winged, 11-18 mm; anthers whitish to yellow.

Stems 3-8 dm, purplish, glaucous; raceme 1-3 dm, with 5-15(-25) short-pedicellate, spreading or drooping fls from the axils of lance- ovate bracts; sep oblanceolate, 2 cm, spreading and distally recurved, slightly exceeding the lateral pet, which are often held closely over the column; lip 1.5 cm, its lateral lobes with 3 or 4 curved purple veins, the terminal lobes with a median purple and white vein and ca 6 purple lateral ridges; column white, ca 15 mm. Woods; Md. to O. and Mo., s. to Fla. and Mex. July, Aug. (H. aphylla)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

On August 3, 1922 I found a few scattered flowering plants on a black and white oak slope in a woods bordering the Ohio River in sec. 14 about 15 miles southeast of Corydon. R. C. Friesner found it near Edwardsville in Floyd County August 20, 1923 and again on August 14, 1926. Blatchley reported it as growing on a high, wooded hill 2 miles south of Wyandotte Cave, Crawford County, July 25, 1896. These are our only reports.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 10

Wetland Indicator Status: UPL