Malaxis spicata Sw.1788

Inflorescence Photos by David McAdoo

Common Name The Spike-Shaped Malaxis - Florida's Adder's Mouth

Flower Size .15 to .2" [3 to 5 mm]

Found in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Bahamas, Leewards, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and Jamaica at lower elevations in rich, damp woodlands, on riverbanks and floodplains, tree bases and stumps as a mini-miniature to medium sized, hot to warm growing terrestrial and occasional epiphyte with 2, basal, ovate, keeled, nearly opposite, swollen at the base into the peas-sized pseudobulb that blooms in the summer through fall on a terminal, erect, 5 to 115 flowered inflorescence carrying doubly resupinate, successively opening flowers

Synonyms Achroanthes floridana (Chapm.) Greene 1891; Malaxis brittonii Acuña 1939; Malaxis confusa (Cogn.) C.Schweinf. 1938; Malaxis floridana (Chapm.) Kuntze 1891; Malaxis integra (Fawc. & Rendle) Fawc. & Rendle 1910; Malaxis spicata f. trifoliata P.M.Br. 2003; Microstylis confusa Cogn. 1909; Microstylis floridana Chapm. 1860; Microstylis integra Fawc. & Rendle 1909; Microstylis spicata Lindl.1830

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Native Orchids of Florida Luer 1972; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 3 1986 photo; Catalogo Descriptivo de las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987 as Malaxis brittonii/Malaxis confusa/Malaxis spicata; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; The Wild Orchids of Florida P. M. Brown 2002

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