General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts and botanical gardens.
Description: Epiphytic wildflower.
Dimensions: The pseudobulbs and leaves are typically 1-3 feet in height; the flower stalk exceeds the leaves. Old plants will form large basket-like clumps much broader than tall.
Growth Rate: Slow.
Range:
Monroe County Keys north to Miami-Dade and Lee counties; West Indies, Central America and South America. In the Monroe County Keys, extremely rare in the vicinity of Key Largo.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Map of ZIP codes with habitat recommendations from the Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Charlotte counties.
Habitats: Swamps and coastal uplands.
Soils: Epiphytic in moist, well-drained humusy leaf litter, acid to neutral pH.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow on nutrient poor substrate, but needs some nutrient inputs to thrive.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate long-term flooding by salt or brackish water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Moderate; grows near salt water, but is protected from direct salt spray by other vegetation.
Drought Tolerance: Moderate; generally requires moist soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established.
Light Requirements: Light shade to full sun.
Flower Color: Yellow and brown.
Flower Characteristics: Showy.
Flowering Season: Spring.
Fruit: Capsule containing numerous minute seeds.
Wildlife and Ecology: The roots grow upright, forming a basket to trap leaves and other detritis.
Horticultural Notes: Primarily grown from seed in a sterilized flask.
Comments: Listed as endangered by the state of Florida. It was heavily collected in the 20th century and is now relatively scarce. See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's
Flower Friday page and Florida Natural Areas Inventory's
Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Florida page (Chafin 2000).
