Cyclopogon cranichoides (Griseb.) Schltr.

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Orchidaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Cyclopogon cranichoides (Griseb.) Schltr.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Terrestrial herb to 40 cm tall; roots several, fleshy, fusiform, to 4.5 cm long, 4-8 mm thick near base. Leaves several, spreading, forming a loose, basal rosette; blades broadly elliptic to ovate, 2.5-8 x 1.3-3.8 cm, dark green above, purplish below, sometimes with whitish markings; petioles 11-35(-55) mm long. Flowers on mottled, purplish, slender, pubescent racemes, to 15 cm long, continuously elongating as fruits mature, many-flowered; floral bracts mottled, lanceolate, usually shorter than the flowers but longer than the ovary. Sepals pubescent, greenish brown, linear-elliptic to linear-pandurate, acute at apex; dorsal sepal midvein and margins dark near apex, 3.5-5 x 1.2-2 mm; lateral sepals often reflexed, 4-6 x 1-1.5 mm; petals brownish, loosely adnate to the dorsal sepal, linear, spatulate-oblanceolate, to 4.5 x 0.5-1 mm , the midvein and apical margins dark, acute at apex; lip white, basally gibbose, oblong, constricted above the middle, slightly flared at the apex, provided with a pair of basal tubercles, to 5 x 2.5 mm; column slender, clavate, ca. 3.5 mm long, pollinia yellow; ovary 4-7 mm long, pedicellate. Fruit erect, ellipsoidal, 6-8 x 3.5-4.5 mm .

    Distribution and Ecology - Rare, collected once in deep humus of moist forest understory. Bordeaux Mountain (Mrazek 4). Also known from Florida, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Central and South America.

  • Discussion

    Spiranthes stored Chapm., Fl. South. U.S., ed. 3, 488. 1897. Beadlea storeri (Chapm.) Small, Fl. S.E. U.S. 319. 1903.