Dendrophylax lindenii (Lindley) Bentham ex Rolfe. Common name: White Butterfly Orchid, Ghost Orchid, Frog Orchid, Palm-polly. Phenology: (May-) Jun-Jul (Aug). Habitat: Epiphytic on trees in dome swamps, strand swamps, and sloughs, especially on Annona glabra and Fraxinus cubensis. Occasionally on Taxodium ascendens on strand margins of Annona glabra sloughs. Distribution: S. FL (Collier, Lee Counties); West Indies (Bahamas, Cuba).

ID notes: This leafless species of orchid can be identified vegetatively due to the presence of white marks (pneumatodes) on the roots.

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Other Comments: This species grows in drier, coastal, jagged-reef limestone habitats in Cuba in which plants grow epiphytically on a diverse suite of semi-deciduous tropical hardwood species (Mújica et al. 2018), a somewhat stark contrast from the strand swamps and sloughs of its s. FL environs.
As Luer (1972) more eloquently describes, “While wading knee deep in swamp water, the thrill of chancing upon a plant in flower will never be forgotten. The setting will be replete with buttressed custard-apple trees, stilted above the water, spreading their low, arching boughs bedecked with myriads of epiphytic plants. Down low on the trunk the familiar spidery network of rambling green roots will not be hard to find. Should one be lucky enough to see a flower, all else will seem eclipsed. There, caught hovering in mid-air, will be a fantastic, fairy-like ghost frozen in flight.”

Synonymy ⓘ: = FNA26, K4, NS, POWO, WH3, WI, Brown (2002); = Polyradicion lindenii (Lindl.) Garay; = Polyrrhiza lindenii (Lindl.) Cogn. — S, S13, Correll (1950), Luer (1972); Angraecum lindenii Lindley. Basionym: Angraecum lindenii Lindl. 1846

Links to other floras: = Dendrophylax lindenii - FNA26

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Heliophily ⓘ: 1