It looks similar to a Habenaria we have in our woods, except ours has greenish flowers and I don't think are in bloom yet. Where are you? Paul.

We're in Brooksville. These look greenish before they open. I was wondering which variety of the Habenaria it is since there is one that is very rare. We have three right close together, under a large wild Magnolia. I haven't seen them anywhere else on the property.

Gorgeous flower- there is a native orchid place here in St Pete... Fla. Native Orchids, 2nd st and 69 ave. north, I bought some orchids from them they are very helpful, they have 3 huge greenhouses packed with fantastic stuff.......sally

This is most likely Habenaria macroceratitis. It could also be H. quinqueseta...the diagnostic would be the length of the spur on the backside of the flower. In general, > 4 inches is macroceratitis, I recently photographed a population of these in Inverness, FL, which I posted to my blog. PM me for the URL (I don't want to fun afoul of advertisement rules on this forum).

Someone in the orchid forum suggested H. distans. It is absolutely not that one.

---Prem

Thanks, others have also said it looks like Habenaria quinqueseta, which I saw in the book title: Florida Wild Flowers and Roadside Plants by C. Ritchie Bell and Bryan J. Taylor, just wasn't sure. When I Googled Habenaria there were several other species in that genus listed so I wanted confirmation. Again, thanks.

Both H. quinqueseta and H. macroceratitis are similar-looking species...in fact, some consider the latter to be just a variant of the former. The spur length is what will help distinguish the one from the other.

The book you reference is very old (I remember using it as a reference when I was a teenager--some 25 years ago), so the species names may or may not be current.

---Prem

Since I'm not anywhere near an expert on orchids, can you explain what the spur is? I measured all the petals of the flower itself and none of those even measure 1/2 inch. Is it the major spike that the flowers come off of that goes into the ground? Sorry to be ignorant, I love knowing as much as possible about all the native plants on our property, but am not an expert on any of it.

Hi Rita,
no need to apologize. I should have been more clear with my description.

The spurs are narrow, tube-like structures that hang down from the backs of the flowers. You can see them very clearly curling down from the flowers and out into space in this photo:

They don't always curl out from the flowering stem as in my photo...sometimes they hug the stem pretty closely and are thus harder to see.

OK, found the spur - it was flat against the main stem, so didn't notice it until you clued me in. None of them are over 2 inches long. So I guess it's the quinqueseta if I'm reading your directions correctly. The first one that bloomed is now on it's way out. But now I've found another one, so that makes 4 plants so far. We have so much out there it's hard to try to pick out the foliage if it's not blooming yet. I'm just going to leave them be, I have given up trying to dig up natives and moving them, they always die on me. Thanks again for your expert help.

I'm just going to leave them be, I have given up trying to dig up natives and moving them, they always die on me.

--Thank you.

Native terrestrial orchids are hard to move - orchids produce thousands of seeds but unless an ideal spot with supporting fungi can be found, they will not thrive. Letting them be is the best gift to nature you can give, and now that you know where they are, you can always enjoy them in their preferred setting :)

Hi Rita,
that's great that you found the regular species. I have been trying to find that one to photograph. Is there any chance we could set up a time to photograph the plants in your yard (either this year or perhaps next year)? You can e-mail me directly at prem@premdesign.com.

---Prem

Wow are you lucky, in all my years of tromping through the Florida woods I've never seen that orchid...had to look up the Habenaria's in my copy of The Native Orchids of Florida (Luer 1972).

Tom

We are very lucky, Tom. We've been here 5 years and every season I find something new. So many different varieties of flowers at different times of the year. I had never before seen things like Pawpaws, Pine Hyacinths, Sparkleberries, even Violets in the subdivision in Tampa where we used to live. Of course, you can't just go roaming around in vacant lots in the city, you might either get arrested for trespassing or maybe even assaulted by a gang-banger, so moving here was the best thing we ever did. I'm still working on trying to identify everything we have here.

Lucky you, I miss the woods but I love the water....

It'd be cool if you could put together some pictures of your other "discoveries". It's one thing to see a picture in a book, it another to see several pictures from the same micro-climate / environment that belongs to someone you know :-)

Tom

Actually I have started a photo gallery of things here, but I am such a terrible photographer that they really don't do justice. And, posting is a pain for me, I struggle every time I do it. I'll check when I have enough time to fool with it to see if any of them are worth trying to share.

Lou, it's just like when they passed the bill that saltwater fishing now requires a permit. That was one of the VERY FEW activities that poor people could afford, take the family out on a pier or on the shallows and fish. Now they can't afford to do that. MOST people - especially people who take the kids - catch and release or most of the time only catch one or two fish TOPS. I wrote Gov. Crist about this, who signed the bill, and his peeps sent me back a reply that I should contact the state legislature who created the bill in the first place. Families are hard-pressed to find activities now that don't cost so much they have to take out a loan, I just can't understand why this was necessary. It's a different world now, that's for sure. I love nature and don't want to decimate the species but give me a break on the occasional fisherman out there just trying to enjoy nature and get out of the rat-race and enjoy a simple pastime - that's not what is going to adversely affect the fish population.

I just have to share something (and brag a little) about the visit from Prem today. He posted above, guiding me on identifying this orchid. He requested permission to photograph it since he didn't have this particular one in his stock gallery. Since he was so nice (and after researching him on the internet) I gave him permission to come. He is such a nice and knowledgeable guy, he brought 2 of his lovely daughters along to help him. He also gifted me with one of his Ghost Orchid prints, which he shot himself. (He travels all over Florida, shooting and studying our wild orchids, which he publishes and supplies to Universities, etc.) I feel extremely honored that a specialist like that was interested in something in my little wilderness.

Personal inspection of the plants verified Rita's ID of these as Habenaria quinqueseta.

I'd like to express my thanks to Rita and John for allowing me to photograph the plants in their yard. This was one species that I very much wanted to capture in pixels. Here is one of the photos taken on that day:

I posted more images to the information page for this species on my website.

What a delightful story - the finding, identifying and photographing of this orchid, second only to the ghost orchid in my book. In a world full of strangers, the beauty of nature still transcends our fear of each other. We are all gifted by the beautiful photograph and the way it came about. Sometimes the modern marvel of Internet communications brings little miracles, if only the miracle of sharing a beautiful plant. www.dkchrist.com author of Ghost Orchid, a mystery of love, lies & redemption, wrapped in the aura of the ghost orchid, high in the cypress canopy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Consultant & Author, D. K. Christi

Great story, indeed

And what a photo of the orchid, such detail!

Sniff, sniff, boy as many times as we had to eat fried spam as a kid (we were dirt poor), you'd think it would be immediately recognizable - guess it was too covered up with sweet, thick pineapple syrup this time! (That's the folks in Hawaii like it best.)