Lawn Orchid

Given the weedy nature of these plants, the apparently high fruit set (C. A. Luer 1972, plate 36), and the spontaneous reproduction in greenhouses (O. Ames 1938), Zeuxine strateumatica is very likely autogamous or apomictic. Five cytotypes whose floral morphology overlapped considerably have been identified (S. P. Vij and N. Vohra 1974). In all but the 2n = 20 cytotype, meiotic behavior was abnormal.

Plants 4–25 cm. Roots clustered at nodes of subterranean part of stem and rhizome, short. Stems from decumbent base, erect or ascending, greenish, tinged with purple or brown, slender. Leaves 5–12, spirally arranged, sessile, sheathing; blade erect, dark green, linear to narrowly lanceolate, keeled, 1–9 × 0.3–0.8 cm, apex long-acuminate. Inflorescences 8–50-flowered; rachis 1–8 cm; floral bracts green, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 15 × 4 mm. Flowers white with prominent yellow lip; dorsal sepal concave, ovate-oblong to oblong-elliptic, 4–7 × 2–3 mm, apex obtuse; lateral sepals oblique, ovate-oblong to oblong-elliptic, 4–6 × 2–3 mm, apex obtuse to acute; petals oblong-lanceolate, falcate, 4–6 × 1.5–2 mm, converging with dorsal sepal; lip adnate to base of column, sessile, base concave, subsaccate or cymbiform, containing 2 glands, lamina ± contracted in middle, abruptly dilated at apex, not extending beyond lateral sepals, 4 × 3 mm, fleshy; column 1.5 mm; anther between 2 large stigmatic processes, scarious; pollinia yellow; ovary sessile, stout, 7 mm. Capsules suberect, ovoid to ellipsoid, 7 mm. 2n = 22–64, 30–56, 50, 100.

Plants 5-25 cm, very variable in size. Stem creeping below, then erect, densely leafy throughout. Leaves sessile, linear-lanceolate. Inflorescence densely many-flowered, glabrous. Bracts lanceolate, diaphanous, exceeding flowers. Flowers white or pale rose. Sepals up to 5 mm long, the dorsal ovate, concave, laterals ovate-lanceolate; petals subequal in length, falcately-oblong. Labellum fleshy; saccate at base, inside with a tooth on each side and 2 parallel lamellae joining the mid-rib, in front transversely oval and yellow. Ovary fusiform-cylindric, sessile, glabrous.

introduced; Ala.(?), Fla., Ga., La., Miss., Tex.; West Indies; native, Asia; Pacific Islands.

Afghanistan, Himalaya (Kashmir to Assam), India, Ceylon, Burma, Indo-China, China, Malaysia.

Distribution: S. & SE.Asia, Westwards to Persia (Makran), eastwards Nepal, Assam, Burma, China, Japan. On wet places near rivers and on land temporarily flooded. A lowland plant.

400-1200 m

Fl. Per.: March-April.

Flowering fall--winter (Oct--Jan), occasionally spring.

Moist areas in a variety of habitats, including lawns, roadsides, nurseries, farm fields, occasionally hammocks and pinelands; 0--30m.

Orchis strateumatica Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 943. 1753

Zeuxine strateumatica, common names lawn orchid or soldier orchid, is a species of terrestrial orchids. It is widespread across much of Asia, including China, Japan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Iran, the Indian Subcontinent, Afghanistan, and Southeast Asia, as well as in New Guinea and in some of the islands of the Pacific. It is naturalized in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Tamaulipas (in northeastern Mexico), West Indies, Hawaii, California, and the southeastern United States from Texas to Georgia.

Zeuxine strateumatica is a perennial herb up to 25 cm tall. Leaves are linear or narrowly lanceolate, up to 9 cm long. Flowers are borne in an erect panicle of as many as 50 flowers, each white with a yellow lip.

In its natural habitat in Asia, Zeuxine strateumatica grows in grasslands, and along streambanks. In places where it is introduced, it frequently grows in lawns and agricultural fields, and is thus considered a nuisance weed.