Cyclopogon cranichoides, also known as the Speckled Ladies’ Tresses, is a terrestrial species of orchid. It grows from south Florida to the tropical Americas.
Description C. cranichoides is an orchid that grows in the West Indies, Central America, and northern South America. It is small compared to others of its genus, growing about tall. It grows in humus, in the moist shade of hammocks. The roots are fusiform and fleshy, growing about wide and tall.
There are funnelform tube shaped flowers, which have green-brown dorsal sepals that are darker near the midvein and apex. Those sepals are narrow and elliptic to pandurate, being , with an acute apex. It flowers in February through March.
The proximal petals are greenish-brownish, while the distant ones are greenish-white. The petals have dark brown apical margins and midveins. They are narrowly spatulate-oblanceolate, being , and they have an acute apex.
The lip is white, canaliculate, and oblong, and gets constricted as it gets farther away from the middle. It reaches at the middle. It has a gibbose base with two tubercles. The apex is slightly flared.
The lateral sepals are often reflexed and are narrowly elliptic to narrowly pandurate. They are with an acute apex.
The column is slender, at thick. The pollen is yellow, and the ovary is . The capsules are elipsoid and erect, and are .
There are three to eight oval-shaped leaves, which are petiolate and suberect, with a greenish-purple top and a purple underside, which sometimes have white marks. The leaves are , and have an acute to obtuse tip.
There are pubescent mottled-purple inflorescences, and a raceme that grows up to as the fruit matures. There are mottled-lanceolate floral bracts that are longer than the ovaries.
References
External links IOSPE orchid photos, Cyclopogon cranichoides (Griseb.) Schltr. 1921 Photo by © Carl Luer and courtesy of The Swiss Orchid Foundation and the At Jany Renz Herbarium Website Plants of Saint Lucia, wild flowering plants, Cyclopogon cranichoides Leigthon Photography & Imaging, Speckled Ladies'-tresses (Cyclopogon cranichoides)