Habenaria eustachya Rchb.f. 1885

Plant and Flowers in situ Puerto Rico

Photos by © Jose Alicea and his Flickr Orchid Biodiversity Photo Website

Collection sheet

Photo by © Jany Renz and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

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 ; 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 as H troyana drawing good; Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939; 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; Orchids of Guatemala and Beliz Ames & Correll 1985 drawing good; Catalogo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna Gale 1987; Selbyana Vol 10 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; 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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