Oeceoclades maculata
(monk orchid)

Preferred Common Name

• monk orchid

Other Scientific Names

• Aerobion maculatum (Lindl.) Spreng.
• Angraecum maculatum Lindley.
• Angraecum monophyllum A. Rich
• Epidendrum connivens Vell.
• Eulophia ledienii. N. E. Br.
• Eulophia mackenii. Rolfe ex Hemsl.
• Eulophia maculata (Lindl.) Rchb.
• Eulophia monophylla S. Moore
• Eulophidium ledienii (N.E. Br.) De Wild.
• Eulophidium mackenii (Rolfe ex Hemsl.) Schltr.
• Eulophidium maculatum (Lindl.) Pfitzer.
• Eulophidium maculatum var. pterocarpum Hauman
• Eulophidium monophyllum Schltr.
• Eulophidium nyassanum Schltr.
• Eulophidium warneckeanum Kraenzl
• Geodorum pictumo Link
• Graphorchis maculata (Lindl.) Kuntze.
• Limodorum maculatum (Lindl.) Lodd.
• Oeceoclades mackenii (Rolfe ex Hemsl.) Garay & P. Taylor.
• Oeceoclades maculata var. pterocarpa (Hauman) Garay & P. Taylor
• Oeceoclades monophylla Garay & P. Taylor.

International Common Names

• English: African spotted orchid; ground orchid; lawn orchid
• Spanish: orquídea monje; orquídea morada

Local Common Names

• Cuba: lengua de vaca; oceoclades
• Dominican Republic: orquídea de tierra
• Puerto Rico: orquídea de misiones

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Monocotyledonae
•                     Order: Orchidales
•                         Family: Orchidaceae
•                             Genus: Oeceoclades
•                                 Species: Oeceoclades maculata

The family Orchidaceae is one of the largest and most diverse monocot families. This family includes about 880 genera and 22,075 species broadly distributed over the world, except in Antarctica (Ackerman, 1995). New species are continually being described and numerous natural and artificial hybrids exist. The genus Oeceoclades is mostly terrestrial in habitat with a few species extending into very arid environments, which is unusual for an orchid. According to Ackerman (1995), J. Lindley named this plant for its distinctively mottled leaves and used the Latin word for “spotted”. O. maculata is native to Africa; however, it was first described in 1821 as Angraecum maculatum by Lindley from a collection made by Loddiges in 1816 from Brazil (Garay and Taylor, 1976). O. maculata is the only species in the genus that is currently distributed outside Africa (Cohen and Ackerman, 2009).

Terrestrial or epilithic herb up to 40 cm tall; rhizomatous; appearing stemless, but with pseudo-bulbs (shortened and swollen stems). Pseudo-bulbs ovoid and clustered, up to 4 cm long, each producing a single leaf. Leaf glossy, dark green, with silvery gray mottling, up to 30 cm long and 5 cm wide, fleshy, lanceolate to elliptic; margins entire, base appearing petiolate, tips acute; blade slightly folded lengthwise down the middle. Inflorescence solitary, up to 40 cm long, with 5-20 flowers that mature sequentially. Flowers up to 1.5 cm across, petals and sepals similar, slightly cupped, elliptic, up to 10 cm long, light brown, cream or greenish pink, with one large lower petal (“lip”) deeply 3-lobed and white with purple lines; a tubular, bulbous-tipped spur (sac-like appendage) protruding from beneath the lip. Stamens, style, and stigma combined into one white structure (“the column”) up to 0.5 cm long. Fruit is a pendant capsule 2-3 cm long with abundant minute seeds (Dressler, 1993; Ackerman, 1995).

O. maculata was introduced to Brazil probably at the beginning of the eighteenth century and it was first described in 1821 from a Brazilian collection (Garay and Taylor, 1976). Since then, it spread at an accelerated rate through tropical and subtropical America, rapidly colonizing environments with strong anthropogenic intervention (Stern, 1988). In Puerto Rico, it was first noted in 1966 and has rapidly spread throughout the entire island occupying a wide range of habitats including mogotes (karst hills), moist, wet secondary forests, and dry forests (i.e., Guánica; González-Díaz and Ackerman, 1988). In 1987, O. maculata was first collected in the rainforest of the Luquillo Mountains (Cohen and Ackerman, 2009).

In Florida, O. maculata was established before 1974 either as an escapee from cultivation or through a range expansion from nearby Caribbean islands (Stern, 1988). O. maculata spread throughout Florida in less than 10 years, rapidly colonizing new habitats. By 2001, it was reported from over 70 conservation areas throughout south Florida from disturbed uplands, pine rocklands, prairie, rockland hammocks, pine flatwoods, maritime forests, and hardwood hammocks. In 2001 it was classified as a category II invasive species by the Florida Exotic Pest Plants Council (FLEPPC) and targeted for removal from commercial production by Florida Growers Associations. O. maculata was removed from FLEPPC category II in 2003.

In Mexico, the first population of O. maculata was recorded on the Yucatan Peninsula in the early 1990s. Since then, this species has been reported as widely dispersed in south-eastern Mexico, thriving in moderately disturbed as well as in well-conserved wet forest and seasonally dry tropical forest (Salazar and Ballesteros, 2011).

Soil drainage

• free

Soil texture

• light
• medium

Special soil tolerances

• shallow

Most orchids including O. maculata produce thousands to millions of minute dust-like seeds that are mainly wind-dispersed (Arditti, 1992).

O. maculata has been identified as a weed that can smother native plants where it has been introduced. This may be due to the fact that this species is able to grow rapidly, colonizing new areas and forming dense stands and therefore interfering with seedling germination and establishment of young plants (Stern 1988). In addition, invasive orchid species may be competing for fungal associates and pollinators, therefore adversely affecting the fitness of native orchid species (Cohen and Ackerman, 2009). Further studies are needed to identify and quantify competition mechanisms and fungi-associations among orchids.

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Has a broad native range
• Abundant in its native range
• Highly adaptable to different environments
• Is a habitat generalist
• Tolerant of shade
• Highly mobile locally
• Long lived
• Fast growing
• Has high reproductive potential
• Gregarious

• Conflict
• Damaged ecosystem services
• Ecosystem change/ habitat alteration
• Monoculture formation
• Reduced native biodiversity
• Threat to/ loss of endangered species
• Threat to/ loss of native species

• Rapid growth

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately

Orchids are widely used in horticulture and floristry, but also increasingly in the pharmaceuticals and fragrance industries. Few orchid species are economically important outside the horticultural trade: the fruits of several species of Vanilla are the source of the spice vanilla, and the dry roots of some species of Dactylorhiza, Eulophia, and Orchis are used to produce  salep, a flour consumed in northern Africa, the Middle East (especially Turkey), and Asia. Some species are locally used for medicinal purposes; the mucilage from pseudo-bulbs of several species is sometimes used as glue; and in the Far-East the stems of some species of Dendrobium are split into strips used to weave handicrafts. O. maculata is used as an ornamental and is available through the nursery trade.