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''Oeceoclades maculata'', sometimes known as the monk orchid or African spotted orchid, is a terrestrial orchid species in the genus ''
''Oeceoclades maculata'' was first found naturalized outside of Africa in Brazil in 1829. It was later found throughout the
The genus ''Oeceoclades'' Lindl.
''Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University'' 24(9): 249-274. Later authors did not agree with recognizing these distinctions as sufficient to maintain separate taxa and thus reduced these names to synonyms of ''O. maculata''.
Oeceoclades
''Oeceoclades'', collectively known as the monk orchids, is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is related to '' Eulophia'' and like that genus is mostly terrestrial in habit. A few species extend into very arid en ...
'' that is native to tropical Africa
Although tropical Africa is mostly familiar to the West for its rainforests, this biogeographic realm of Africa is far more diverse. While the tropics are thought of as regions with hot moist climates, which are caused by latitude and the trop ...
and now naturalized
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
in South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Florida in North America. It was first described by the English botanist John Lindley
John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist.
Early years
Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley w ...
as ''Angraecum maculatum'' in 1821 based on a specimen collected from South America. Lindley later revised his original placement and moved the species to the genus ''Oeceoclades'' in 1833.
''Oeceoclades maculata'' was first found naturalized outside of Africa in Brazil in 1829. It was later found throughout the Neotropics
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...
and specifically in Puerto Rico in the mid-1960s and in Florida in the early 1970s. It is considered to be one of the most successful invasive orchids.Stern, W.L. 1988. The long-distance dispersal of ''Oeceoclades maculata''. ''American Orchid Society Bulletin'', 57(9): 960-971.
When Leslie Andrew Garay
Leslie Andrew Garay (August 6, 1924 - August 19, 2016), born Garay László András, was an American botanist. He was the curator of the Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium at Harvard University, where he succeeded Charles Schweinfurth in 1958. In 1957 h ...
and Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to:
Arts
* Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
* Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing
Politi ...
resurrected and revised the genus ''Oeceoclades'' in 1976, they recognized ''O. maculata'' and two related species, ''O. mackenii'' and ''O. monophylla''. All three were described as being very similar in appearance and according to Garay and Taylor, the species could be distinguished by the proportions of the labellum, allowing for easy identification in preserved specimens or in the field in their opinion. ''Oeceoclades mackenii'' was said to have a labellum that was shorter than wide and possessed a branched inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
, while the labellum of ''O. monophylla'' had a "distinct elongate isthmus." Garay and Taylor also recognized the subspecies ''O. maculata'' subsp. ''pterocarpa'', which was said to have winged capsules.Garay, L.A., and P. Taylor. 1976The genus ''Oeceoclades'' Lindl.
''Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University'' 24(9): 249-274. Later authors did not agree with recognizing these distinctions as sufficient to maintain separate taxa and thus reduced these names to synonyms of ''O. maculata''.
References
External links
* * maculata Orchids of Central America Orchids of Belize Flora of East Tropical Africa Flora of South Tropical Africa Flora of West Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Flora of the Western Indian Ocean Flora of Sudan Plants described in 1821 {{Cymbidieae-stub