Habenaria monorrhiza [Sw] Rchb.f 1885 SECTION Leptoceras
Inflorescence, in situ Navarco Quindio Colombia 1500 meters 5/08
Inflorescence and flowers in situ MonteVerde National Park Panama Caribbean side 10/11
Flower Closeup in situ MonteVerde National Park Panama Caribbean side 10/11
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
Photo courtesy of Belize Botanic Gardens © and their Belize Botanic Garden Webpage
What has been called H speciosa
Photo by © Rodrigo Escobar
to 
and 
Common Name The Single-Rhizome Habenaria
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
A small to large sized, warm to cold growing, erect terrestrial from Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leewards, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago and the Windward Islands that is found at altitudes of 5 to 2800 meters as a small to large sized common terrestrial in low weedy ground, wet areas along roadside ditches, wet meadows, road cuts, and thickets on wooded hillsides as well as damp, exposed steep slopes with a suterranean hairy tuber, an erect stem enveloped completely by purple-spotted grey green sheaths giving rise to ovate-lanceolate, thin, basally clasping leaves that are grayish underneath that blooms in the fall and winter on a terminal, 8" [20 cm] long, laxly to densly many flowered, racemose inflorescence that has lanceolate, keeled floral bracts and carrying nocturnally fragrant flowers.
Habenaria monnorhiza flowers begin to rot quickly although the flower still seens viable, I have not seen one in better shape in nature. Both plants, one in Colombia and the other in Panama were photographed in the late afternoon, maybe I need to get up earlier.
Synonyms Habenaria brachyceratitis Willd. 1805; Habenaria latifolia Kunth 1816; Habenaria maculosa Lindley 1835; Habenaria sceptrodes Rchb.f. 1856; Habenaria sodiroi Schltr. 1915; Habenaria speciosa Poepp. & Endl. 1836; Limnorchis laxiflora Rydb. 1901; Orchis fuciflora Crantz 1769; *Orchis monorrhiza Sw. 1788; Orchis setacea Jacq. 1760; Platanthera monorrhiza (Sw.) W.J.Schrenk 1977
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1853/4 as H triptera; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1853/4 as H maculosa; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856 as H maculosa; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856 as H sceptrodes; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as H maculosa; Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 4 Ames 1910; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing fide; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 38 Colombia Schlechter 1920 as H latifolia; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 38 Colombia Schlechter 1920 as H maculosa; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 38 Colombia Schlechter 1920;Repert. Speciorum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis Band VIII Peru Schlechter 1921 as H maculosa; Repert. Speciorum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis Band VIII Ecuador Schlechter 1921 as H maculosa; Repert. Speciorum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis Band VIII Ecuador Schlechter 1921 as H sodiroi; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 78. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 160. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:151 Schlechter 1924; Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939; Flora Brasilica Vol XII I Hoehne 1940 drawing ok; Orchids of Guatemala Ames & Correl 1952; Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 1 1969 drawing fide; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 drawing fide; Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 1 Hamer 1974 drawing/photo fide; Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 1 Pabst and Dungs 1975 drawing ok; 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; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as H speciosa drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 111 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 766 Dodson 1982 drawaing fide; Orchids of Guatemala and Beliz Ames & Correll 1985; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 6 1986 drawing fide; Catalogo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna Gale 1987; Orchid Hunting in the Lost World and Elsewhere in Venezuela Dunsterrville 1988 drawing fide; Orchids from The Coast Of Ecuador Arosemana, Jurado, Estrada and Konanz 1988 photo fide; Native Orchids of the Eastern Caribbean Kenny 1988 photo fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II plate 0236 Dodson & Vasquez 1989 as H speciosa drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2 COS 1991 as H speciosa photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1437 Atwood 1993 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1437a Atwood 1993 drawing fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Panama and Costa Rica Dressler 1993; An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing fide; Orchids of Jamaica Glouden & Tobisch 1995 photo good; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 258 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide; Venezuela; Paraiso de Orquideas Romero 1997 as H speciosa photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 2 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol III Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 photo fide; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005 photo ok; Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez & Dressler 2005; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 1 Morales 2009 photo fide; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo fide; Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 78 #1 2014 photo fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide; Orchids of the Darien Gap Kolanowska 2014 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas del Valle de Burra Orquideologia 2014; Orquideas Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 photo fide; Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 as H speciosa drawing fide; Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 drawing/photo fide; Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 as H maculosa drawing ok; Orchid Digest Vol 81 #2 2017 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 # 1 2019 photo fide; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
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