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1 Plant epiphytic, growing on the branches or trunks of trees in swamps or hammocks (rarely epilithic). | |
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1 Plant not a vine, instead a cespitose, trailing, rhizomatous, or hanging herb; stems not succulent. | |
4 Plant without pseudobulbs or basally thickened stems, instead only with fleshy, glabrous, fibrous, or chlorophyllous roots | |
5 Plants with fleshy, glabrous, or fibrous roots, not evidently photosynthetic or velamentous; plants with 1 to many leaves. | |
6 Stems with numerous alternate, cauline leaves; leaf blades ovate to elliptic or lanceolate, fleshy-leathery | |
6 Stems with a single leaf, erect and sessile or subsessile; leaf blades elliptic to oblanceolate, leathery. | |
7 Inflorescences few flowered racemes (occasionally several-flowered), 0.8-2 cm long; flowers dark red-purple, glabrous, typically congested near apex of inflorescence; stems 1.5-5 (-8) cm long with 4-8 closely appressed, ciliate sheaths; leaf blades < 2.5 cm long. | |
7 Inflorescences many-flowered racemes, (6-)10-25 (-28) cm long; flowers pubescent, translucent yellow, often spaced throughout the inflorescence; stems 10-25 cm long with 2-3 loose, inflated sheaths; leaf blades > 10 cm. | |
5 Plants with chlorophyllous roots, evidently photosynthetic, velamentous (with thick spongy root epidermis); plants with leaves absent, early deciduous, or otherwise inconspicuous. | |
8 Inflorescence a moderate to loosely flowered raceme with 1-10 flowers (less than 12), floral bracts lanceolate; spur arcuate or scrotiform. | |
Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Harrisella porrecta, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Collier County, Florida 1 by Alan Cressler | |
10 Pseudobulbs inconspicuous or not prominent (stems appearing basally thickened or pseudobulb reduced); reduced pseudobulbs often concealed by longer, scarious, leafy bracts. | |
Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Trichocentrum undulatum, Cape Sable, Everglades National Park, Monroe County, Florida 1 by Alan Cressler | |
11 Plants with multiple leaves per stem (2-6); leaves linear-lanceolate or oblong-elliptic; flowers without prominent blotches. | |
12 Inflorescence erect-arching, not strongly secund and not curved upward at apex; flowers lavender or violet to white with dark rose/purple veins extending to distal portions of lip; typically flowering from Mar-Apr, towards the end of the s. FL dry season; leaves 3-13 cm long | |
12 Inflorescence a strongly secund terminal panicle (a simple raceme in smaller plants), often curved upward apically; flowers yellow-pale green; typically flowering from Aug-Dec., towards the end of the wet season and beginning of the s. FL dry season; leaves 3.5-20 cm long | |
10 Pseudobulbs conspicuous or prominent, strongly to slightly compressed; ovoid, sub-orbicular, ellipsoid, or fusiform (bilaterally flattened). | |
Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Encyclia boothiana var. erythronioides, Lard Can, Hells Bay Canoe Trail, Everglades National Park, Miami-Dade County, Florida 1 by Alan Cressler | |
15 Capsules not prominently 3-winged. | |
18 Inflorescence < 50 cm in length. | |
19 Pseudobulb completely enveloped by 6-7 conduplicate distichous leaf sheaths; flowers borne singly on short pedicels arising from leaf axil, without brown blotches; flowers self-pollinating | |
19 Pseudobulb not enveloped by leaves; pedicels originating from inflorescence; flowers yellow to white, with or without brownish blotches, not self-pollinating. | |
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4 Flowers white, the lip, sepals, and petals all predominantly white. | |
4 Flowers pink, greenish, yellowish, or purplish, the lip sometimes white or marked with white, the sepals and petals colored. | |
8 Lip with 2 fleshy keels near the base; pollinia 4; plants holomycotrophic (without chlorophyll) and never with leaves | |
9 Plants never with leaves, holomycotrophic (without chlorophyll); veins of the petals and sepals strikingly different in color than the intervein areas; lip with 5-7 ridges; pollinia 8 | |
10 Plants with evident, above-ground pseudobulbs, sometimes enclosed by sheaths. | |
12 Lip broadest near its apex; inflorescence typically a more open or lax raceme; leaves to 30 cm long. | |
Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Bletia patula, near Arecibo Observatory, Municipio de Arecibo, Puerto Rico 2 by Alan Cressler | |
Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Spathoglottis plicata, Riviere Glace Valley, Grand Anse Department, Haiti 1 by Alan Cressler | |
10 Plants without above-ground pseudobulbs (either absent or subterranean). | |
21 Leaf basal. | |
22 Flower with a spur. | |
22 Flower without a spur. | |
26 Lip below (resupinate); flowers white, often cleistogamous; lip white with purple margins, with keels | |
26 Lip above (not resupinate); flowers purple or pink (rarely white), chasmogomous; lip with yellow fringes (beard) | |
25 Flowers relatively small, whitish; flowers arranged in densely (and sometimes also spirally) arranged spikes. | |
21 Leaf cauline. | |
29 Sepals brown to purple, linear or narrowly oblanceolate, 3-6.5 cm long, about 5 mm wide; leaf coriaceous | |
29 Sepals pink (rarely white), elliptic or oblanceolate, 1.3-2.7 cm long, 3-11 mm wide; leaf herbaceous | |
31 Leaves cauline. | |
37 Plant with aerial roots throughout stem; lip orange-red, deeply 3 to 4 lobed and marginally fimbriate; [subfamily Epidendroideae] | |
37 Plant without aerial roots throughout stem; lip variously colored, if orange then not deeply 3 to 4 lobed. | |
38 Lip with a spur; leaves linear, lanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, 5-40 cm long (at least the larger > 5 cm long, except in Aspidogyne, with lanceolate to ovate leaves 1.5-6.5 cm long). | |
31 Leaves basal (sometimes with bladeless sheaths upward on the stem). | |
43 Leaves plicate. | |
47 Leaves long petiolate, not basally sheathing stems; sepals longer (to 30 mm), narrowly lanceolate | |
51 Inflorescence a raceme; lip with pink-purple coloration along margin; flowers larger, not tightly spiraling | |
51 Inflorescence a spike; lip without pink/purple coloration along margin; flowers smaller, often spiraling or tightly assembled | |
50 Leaf blades more-or-less horizontally oriented, flat against the ground or 1-2 cm above it. | |
54 Lip without green spots (sometimes with green coloration but not green-spotted). | |
55 Large flowers distinctly pedicellate on racemes; lip short-caudate, 4.5-7 mm long; petals obliquely triangular | |
58 Lip and perianth without a central green stripe; occasionally with multiple green veins on the lip; leaf often persistent. | |
60 Lip canaliculate (grooved longitudinally), without conspicuous yellow throat; flowers greenish-brown or coppery | |