Orchidaceae
Oeceoclades
Kingdom: Plantae Rank: Genus Parent: Orchidaceae Status: Invalid Reason: unverified
Morphological Description
Diagnosis: This is the only orchid in the flora with a solitary, leathery, variegated leaf resembling a Sansieveria (Liliaceae). The genus, primarily African and Madagascan, is represented in the Neotropics by a single widespread species which is thought to have been naturalized and not native. The plants typically have a high fruit set and self-pollinating populations may exist.
Vegetative Morphology
Habit: aespitose terrestrials arising from very fleshy roots. Pseudobulbs ovoid, small, often obscured by bracts.
Leaves: Leaves solitary, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, leathery, usually variegated.
Reproductive Morphology
Inflorescence: Inflorescences erect long-pedunculate racemes or panicles, the floral bracts minute.
Flowers: Flowers produced +/- simultaneously or in rapid succession. Sepals and petals free, spreading, subsimilar, subequal, the lateral sepals often subparallel. Lip 3-lobed, saccate-spurred, with basal callus keels. Column arching, without wings, with a short foot; pollinia 2, flattened, on separate minute caudicles.