Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Monocotyledon Literature for Spathoglottis plicata
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2019.
   Orchidaceae -- The Orchid Family Bibliography
      Spathoglottis plicata

Common name(s): Malayan orchid, Philippine ground orchid
General Information
DistributionNative to SE Asia, Malesia, and a few Pacific islands.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
















Habit
Terrestrial, perennial herb, 3‒15 dm tall, pseudobulbs crowded along and obscuring rhizome, ovoid, 2‒4(‒6) cm long, completely surrounded by the persistent fibrous leaf bases
Leaves
Leaves 2‒6 per pseudobulb, blade conspicuously plicate, linear lanceolate, 20‒150 cm long, (0.8‒)2.5‒8 cm wide, veins conspicuously raised on abaxial surface, margin entire, base long attenuate, apex narrowly acuminate.
Flowers
Inflorescences erect racemose, arising from the pseudobulb, 1.5-15 dm long. Flowers dark purple to pale pink or rarely white, bracts green to greenish purple or purple, erect, becoming reflexed with age; sepals and petals similar, spreading, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 1.5‒2 cm long, apex acute; labellum distinctly 3-lobed, lateral lobes erect or ascending, linear-obovate, 0.8‒1.2 cm long, middle lobe horizontal or ascending, distinctly clawed, 1.2‒1.5 cm long, calluses 3‒4 mm high, deeply bilobed, lobes bright yellow with pink markings; column dark purple to pink or white, narrowly clavate, 12‒15 mm long, slightly winged along lateral edges near stigma; rostellum thin, 1‒1.5 mm long.
Fruit
Fruit cylindrical, 6 ribbed, 3.5‒4 cm long.
Chromosomes
2n = 18, 40, 42, 60.
Contributor
David Lorence