Oeceoclades maculata flower

Oeceoclades maculata, sometimes known as the monk orchid or African spotted orchid is a terrestrial orchid, a perennial herb reaching 30 cm in height.

The plant grows dark, purplish green pseudobulbs. The leaves on short stalks are thick, borne horizontally; their surfaces mottled or spotted grey-green. The leaf blade becomes 15 cm long, 1,5 cm wide, sometimes wider.

The inflorescences are simple or branched, bearing about 30 cream and pink flowers. The side-lobes of the lip are notably pinkish red, in the photo striped so and curving up. The elliptic sepals taper to acutely pointed tips. The pair of lateral petals cohere over the column below the dorsal sepal. The spur is club-shaped, below the square-tipped, notched lip. Flowering happens from late summer to mid-autumn.

The species distribution is widespread in tropical parts of Africa and America, but in South Africa known only in coastal KwaZulu-Natal where the plants are mostly hard to spot, growing in deep shade in leaf litter on forest floors. The species is rare, but not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

O. mackenii that used to be Eulophia mackenii is the same species as the above (Pooley, 1998; www.redlist.sanbi.org).