Butterfly Orchid

Encyclia tampensis

''Encyclia tampensis'' or Tampa butterfly orchid is a species of flowering plant in the Orchid family, subfamily Epidendroideae.

This species was first described by John Torrey in 1847.
Encyclia tampensis my first epiphyte orchid in nature! Encyclia tampensis in Everglades National Park! Butterfly orchid,Encyclia tampensis,Everglades,Florida,Geotagged,Summer,United States

Appearance

The Encyclia tampensis has dark green 7 cm pseudobulbs with narrow foliage up to 16 cm in length and 2 cm in width. Mature plants produce a branched inflorescence in Summer containing several flowers with green to bronze sepals and petals surrounding a white lip with a purple dot. Flowers are alternate, 2.5 cm in diameter and fragrant. They are also called butterfly orchids because of how they sometimes appear in a breeze.

There are some variations in color and markings that exist such as Cuba's encyclia tampense var amesiana and the "alba" or white variety.

The diploid chromosome number of ''E. tampensis'' has been determined as 2''n'' = 40; the haploid chromosome number as ''n'' = 20.

References:

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Taxonomy
KingdomPlantae
DivisionAngiosperms
ClassMonocots
OrderAsparagales
FamilyOrchidaceae
GenusEncyclia
SpeciesE. tampensis