Habenaria alata Hook. 1825 SECTION Pentadactylae Urban
Flower Closeup Photo courtesy of Julian Kenny and NALIS.
Common Name The Winged Habenaria
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, Trinidad, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Surinam, Ecuador and Peru in wet montane cloud forests at elevations of 1200 to 2900 meters as a small to medium sized, warm to cold growing terrestrial or lithophyte with simple, laterally compressed stems carrying many, distichous, lanceolate, conduplicate, all along the stem, progressively decreasing upwards, acuminate leaves that have around 1.6" [4 cm] between each that blooms in the fall on an erect, racemose, 8" [20 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence with ovate-lanceolate, usually longer than the ovary floral bracts.
Synonyms Habenaria brachyceras Spreng. 1826; Habenaria laxiflora Poepp. & Endl. 1836; Habenaria platantheroides Schltr.1918; Habenaria stricta A.Rich. & Galeotti 1845; Habenaria triptera Rchb.f. 1850; Habenaria triptera var. heteroglossa Rchb.f. 1850; Habenella alata (Hook.) Szlach. & Kras-Lap. 2006; Platantheroides alata (Hook.) Szlach.2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing fide; Flora Brasilica Vol XII I Hoehne 1940 as H laxiflora drawing ok; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 drawing fide; Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 1 Foldats 1969 drawing ok; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 drawing fide; Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 1 Hamer 1974 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Garay 1978 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 387 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 758 Hamer 1982 drawing fide; An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing ok; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 2 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide;
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