Habenaria monorrhiza [Sw] Rchb.f 1885 SECTION Leptoceras
Inflorescence, in situ Navarco Quindio Colombia 1500 meters 5/08
Inflorescence and flowers in situ MonteVerde National Park Panama Caribbean side 10/11
Flower Closeup in situ MonteVerde National Park Panama Caribbean side 10/11
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
Photo courtesy of Belize Botanic Gardens © and their Belize Botanic Garden Webpage
to and
Common Name The Single-Rhizome Habenaria
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found as one of the most widespread Habenaria in Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leewards, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago and the Windward Islands at altitudes of 5 to 2800 meters in low weedy ground, wet areas along roadside ditches, wet meadows, road cuts, and thickets on wooded hillsides as well as damp, exposed steep slopes as a small to large sized, warm to cold growing, erect terrestrial with a suterranean hairy tuber, an erect stem enveloped completely by purple-spotted grey green sheaths giving rise to ovate-lanceolate, thin, basally clasping leaves that are grayish underneath that blooms in the fall and winter on a terminal, 8" [20 cm] long, laxly to densly many flowered, racemose inflorescence that has lanceolate, keeled, longer than the pedicellate ovary floral bracts and carrying nocturnally fragrant flowers.
Similar to Habenaria gollmeri Schltr. 1919 but H monorhiza differs mostly in the anterior petal lobe which is filiform, very delicate [.24 x .08" [6 x .02 mm] and in in H golmeri it is linear-filigform [.12 x .02" [3 x .5 mm]
Habenaria monnorhiza flowers begin to rot quickly although the flower still seens viable, I have not seen one in better shape in nature. Both plants, one in Colombia and the other in Panama were photographed in the late afternoon, maybe I need to get up earlier.
Synonyms Habenaria brachyceratitis Willd. 1805; Habenaria latifolia Kunth 1816; Habenaria maculosa Lindley 1835; Habenaria sceptrodes Rchb.f. 1856; Habenaria sodiroi Schltr. 1915; Limnorchis laxiflora Rydb. 1901; Orchis fuciflora Crantz 1769; *Orchis monorrhiza Sw. 1788; Orchis setacea Jacq. 1760; Platanthera monorrhiza (Sw.) W.J.Schrenk 1977
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Enum. Syst. Pl.: 29 Jacq. 1760 as Orchid setacea
Sp. Pl., ed. 4. 4: 44 Willd. 1805 as Habenaria brachyceratitis nom. superfl.
Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 331 Kunth 1816 as H latifolia;
Syst. Veg., ed. 16. 3: 692 Spreng. 1826 as H brachyceras nom. superfl.
* Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges. 3: 274 Rchb.f 1885
Bonplandia j2: 10 Rchb.f 1854 as H triptera;
Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856 as H sceptrodes;
Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 4:229 Ames 1910;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing fide; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 14: 115 Schlechter 1915 as H sodiroi;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 38 Colombia Schlechter 1920 as H latifolia;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 38 Colombia Schlechter 1920;
Repert. Speciorum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis Band VIII Ecuador Schlechter 1921 as H sodiroi;
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/263409#page/84/mode/1up"> Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 78. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 160. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923;
Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:151 Schlechter 1924;
Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939;
Flora Brasilica Vol XII I Hoehne 1940 drawing ok;
Orchids of Guatemala Ames & Correl 1952;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958;
Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960;
Venezuelan Orchids Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 1 1969 drawing fide;
Flora of the Lesser Antilles :32 Garay & Sweet 1974
Flora of the Lesser Antilles :33 Garay & Sweet 1974drawing fide;
Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 1 Hamer 1974 drawing/photo fide;
Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 1 Pabst and Dungs 1975 drawing ok;
Orchidee (Hamburg) 28: 69 Schrenk 1977 as Platanthera monorrhiza
Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Garay 1978 drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 111 Dodson 1980 drawing fide;
Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 766 Dodson 1982 drawaing fide;
Orchids of Guatemala and Beliz Ames & Correll 1985;
AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 6 1986 drawing fide;
Catalogo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna Gale 1987;
Orchid Hunting in the Lost World and Elsewhere in Venezuela Dunsterrville 1988 drawing fide;
Orchids from The Coast Of Ecuador Arosemana, Jurado, Estrada and Konanz 1988 photo fide;
Native Orchids of the Eastern Caribbean Kenny 1988 photo fide;
Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1437 Atwood 1993 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1437a Atwood 1993 drawing fide;
Field Guide to the Orchids of Panama and Costa Rica Dressler 1993;
An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing fide;
Orchids of Jamaica Glouden & Tobisch 1995 photo good;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 258 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide;
Venezuela; Paraiso de Orquideas Romero 1997 as H speciosa photo fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 2 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing/photo fide;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol III Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003;
The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 photo fide;
Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005 photo ok;
Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez & Dressler 2005;
Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 1 Morales 2009 photo fide;
Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo fide;
Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide;
Orchid Digest Vol 78 #1 2014 photo fide;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide;
Orchids of the Darien Gap Kolanowska 2014 drawing/photo fide;
Orquideas del Valle de Burra Orquideologia 2014;
Orquideas Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 photo fide
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1: 146 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 drawing/photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 81 #2 2017 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 # 1 2019 photo fide; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
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