Habenaria eustachya Rchb.f. 1885
Plant and Flowers in situ Puerto Rico
Photos by © Jose Alicea and his Flickr Orchid Biodiversity Photo Website
Drawing by © Fritz Hamer and
Photo by © Jany Renz and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria
Common Name The Well Formed Inflorescence Habenaria
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the Leeward Islands, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica in wet forests at elvations of 1100 to 1650 meters as a medium to large sized, warm to cool growing terrestrial with elliptic tuber-like growths giving rise to erect stems enveloped completely by wide, imbicating sheaths and carrying thin, nine nerved, lanceolate to narrowly ovate to elliptic, acute decreasing in size above leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, erect, 18" [to 45 cm] long, many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate-acuminate, much longer than the ovary floral bracts.
Synonyms Habenaria jimenezii Schltr. 1918; Habenaria sanbornii Ames 1903; Habenaria troyana Fawc. & Rendle 1909; Habenella eustachya (Rchb.f.) Szlach. & Kras-Lap. 2006; Platantheroides eustachya (Rchb.f.) Szlach. 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges. 3: 274 Rchb.f 1885
Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 16: 117 Ames 1903 as H sanbornii
J. Bot. 47: 264 Fawcett & Rendle 1909 as H troyana
Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 4 Ames 1910;
Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 4 Ames 1910 as H troyana; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910
Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 36(2): 372 Schlechter 1918 as H jimenezii
Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939;
Orchids of Guatemala Ames & Correl 1952
Orchids of Guatemala Ames & Correl 1952 drawing good;
Drawings of Florida Orchids Blanche Ames 1959 drawing good;
Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974;
Las Orquideas de El Salvador Hamer Vol 1 1974 drawing/photo fide;
Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 762 Hamer 1982 drawing fide;
Catalogo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna Gale 1987;
Selbyana Vol 10: 303 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide;
An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing fide;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol III Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing good;
Richardiana 4: 106 Szlach 2004 as Platantheroides eustachya
Richardiana 6: 35 Szlach and Kras-Lap 2006 as Habenalla eustachya
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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