Malaxis spicata

Plants (7-)10-29(-45) cm. Pseudobulbs 5-20 mm diam. Leaves 2-3, within proximal 1/3 of stem; blade ovate, suborbiculate, or elliptic, 2.2-9(-10) × 1.4-5 (-5.5) cm. Inflorescences racemes, 1.6-13(-24) cm; floral bracts triangular, 1-3 mm; pedicels 5-10 mm. Flowers 6-150, not resupinate, green with lip also green or pale yellow, brown, orange, or vermillion; dorsal sepal reflexed, ovate, 3-3.5 × 1.5-2 mm, apex acuminate; lateral sepals reflexed, elliptic or lanceolate, 2.5-3 × 1-1.5 mm, apex acuminate; petals strongly reflexed, linear, crossing behind flower, 1.5-2.5 × 0.2-0.3 mm, apex rounded; lip ovate, 2.5-2.9(-4) × 2-3.3 mm, base prominently cordate-auriculate, nearly surrounding column, apex unlobed, acute; column 0.6-1 × 0.6-1 mm; pollinia yellow. Capsules erect, ovoid, 8 × 4 mm.

Flowering winter--early fall. Hammocks and swamps, sometimes semiepiphytic on tree bases; 0--100 m; Fla., Ga., N.C., S.C., Va.; n West Indies.

To some extent the lip color is dependent upon flower age. Plants bloom in Florida from August to February; in Virginia, in June, July, and August; and in Pennsylvania in September. The extent to which the different flowering times are associated with groups that differ in other respects has yet to be determined, and the nature of variation in this species deserves more study.

Scape 1.5-3 dm; lvs 2, broadly oval, 3-10 cm, usually over half as wide; pedicels evident, slender, 4-8 mm; lip uppermost in fl, broadly cordate, pointed at the tip, with conspicuous basal auricles extending below the column and nearly meeting around it, 4 mm, including the auricles, orange toward the center, paler toward the margins. Damp calcareous soil; se. Va. to Fla. and W.I. July-Aug.

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.