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Family: Orchidaceae
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Pogonia mexicana S. Wats. Terrestrial, to ca 15 cm tall; stem single, slender, +/- fleshy, arising from a small tuber. Leaves few, alternate, narrowly to broadly ovate, obtuse to abruptly short-acuminate, obtuse to rounded at base, 8-20 mm long, 5-17 mm wide, thin, 5-veined, the uppermost and lowermost usually much reduced. Pedicels to 12 mm long; flowers 1-3, borne in axils of upper leaves or leaflike bracts; sepals and petals white, narrowly acute at apex; dorsal sepal narrowly lanceolate, to 2 cm long, the lateral sepals linear to narrowly elliptic, subfalcate, to 1.7 cm long; petals similar to lateral sepals; lip +/- obovate, trilobate, slightly shorter than lateral sepals, white, with 3 green medial lines, the terminal lobe rounded, marked along the margin with red-violet, the lateral lobes turned upward along the column, infused submarginally with red-violet; column free, thickened somewhat laterally, slightly shorter than lateral lobes of lip; anther red-violet. Fruits not seen. Croat 15567. According to R. Dressler, the species may be somewhat saprophytic and, as a consequence, may go for long periods without producing a vegetative shoot. Mexico, Guatemala, and Panama. In Panama, known only from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone. |
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