Cyclopogon elatus

Herbs to 75 cm. Roots fusiform-cylindric, 13 cm × 3-10 mm. Leaves 2-6; petiole erect, 3-10 cm; blade green abaxially and adaxially, narrowly to broadly elliptic, or elliptic-lanceolate, 3.7-13 × 1.6-6.4 cm, apex obtuse to acute-acuminate. Inflorescences immaculate, green to greenish brown; scape to 57 cm × 1-5 mm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; racemes 7-50-flowered, 7-23 cm, pubescent; floral bracts erect, immaculate or minutely speckled, lanceolate, 8-19 mm. Flowers green to coppery brown, sometimes purplish, tubular-funnelform; sepals basally connate for 0.1 mm, abaxially pubescent; dorsal sepal elliptic-lanceolate, 4.5-7 × 1.5-2 mm, apex acuminate; lateral sepals slightly sinuate-falcate, narrowly oblong, 5-7.5 × 1-2 mm; petals linear to narrowly spatulate, 4-6.5 × 0.5-0.75 mm, glabrous; lip white, canaliculate, pandurate to oblong-ovate, then constricted distal to middle, distal portion flabellate to reniform, usually broadest, or distal and proximal portions equal in width, 5-7 × 2-4 mm, base laterally thickened, with or without pair of tubercles, margins entire or crenulate; column slender, 3.5-4.5 mm; pollinia yellow. Capsules erect-spreading, ellipsoid, 6-12 × 4-6 mm. 2n = 28, 30, 45.

Flowering Feb--Mar. In humus of moist, rocky hammocks; 0--20 m; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; n South America.

Morphologic variation is substantial in Cyclopogon elatus. Variants may be sympatric and locally distinct (J. D. Ackerman 1995), or they may form a continuous series within or among regions. I suspect that inbreeding (via self-pollination) is prevalent and has generated and maintained local variation.