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Florida Keys Ladies'-Tresses (Mesadenus lucayanus)

Description

Plants to 60 cm. Roots several, 1.5-5 cm - 5-15 mm. Stems subterranean. Leaves spreading, pale green to gray-green, 3-5, glabrous; petiole 0.5-5 cm; blade lanceolate, elliptic to oblanceolate, 2-10.9 - 0.8-3.3 cm, apex obtuse, acute, or acuminate. Inflorescences glabrous; scapes 6.5-30 cm; bracts numerous, overlapping proximally, distant distally; racemes many-flowered, 6.5-29 cm; floral bracts erect, lanceolate, 3-4.5 mm, apex acuminate. Flowers reflexed, brownish green to coppery, slightly swollen basally, subsalverform, glabrous; sepals linear-lanceolate; dorsal sepal 4-6 - 0.7-1.2 mm; lateral sepals basally connate 1-1.5 mm, falcate, 4-6.5 - 0.7-1.2 mm; petals connate and adnate to dorsal sepal, falcate, linear-lanceolate, 4-5 - 0.5-1.2 mm; lip sometimes auriculate, short-unguiculate, elliptic-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-6 - 1-2.5 mm, apex obtuse-rounded; column clavate, 2-2.5 mm; pedicellate ovary erect, subsessile, 2.5-4 mm, apically geniculate. Capsules ovoid, 4-6 mm. Flowering winter--early spring (late Dec--Mar). Oak forests, in rocky soil; 0--30 m; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies.

Taxonomic tree

  • Domain: Eukarya

    • Kingdom: Plantae

      • Phylum: Magnoliophyta

        • Class: Liliopsida

          • Order: Asparagales

            • Family: Orchidaceae

              • Genus: Mesadenus