Leafless Bentspur Orchid

Plants appressed to substrate, inconspicuous, leafless at anthesis. Roots gray-green, fascicled, 2.5–5 mm wide when flattened against substrate. Stems hidden by roots, to 5 mm. Leaves early deciduous, minute, scarious. Inflorescences densely flowered spikes, erect to pendent, stout, to 3.5 cm; floral bracts broadly cordate, 1–3 mm, scarious, margins erose-denticulate. Flowers resupinate, funnelform; sepals brownish orange, elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 4 × 1.5 mm, apex acute; petals creamy white with pink flush, otherwise similar to sepals, 3.5 × 1.5 mm; lip same color as petals, 3-lobed, 2–3 × 2 mm, middle lobe triangular-acuminate, lateral lobes triangular-rounded; spur saccate, 2.5 mm; column less than 0.5 mm; pollinia greenish; ovary sessile, 1 mm. Capsules brownish orange, ellipsoid, 6–9 × 3–4 mm, pubescent.

Fla.; West Indies; n South America.

Flowering Sep--Oct.

Cypress swamps and wet hammocks; 0--20m.

Aeranthus pachyrrhizus Reichenbach f., Flora 48: 279. 1865; A. spathaceus Grisebach

Campylocentrum pachyrrhizum is a species of orchid. It is native to the West Indies (Greater Antilles plus Trinidad), southern Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca, Yucatán Peninsula), Central America (Guatemala and Panama), northern South America (Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, the Guianas), and southern Florida.