Florida’s naturalized orchids are mostly terrestrials (10/15, 5/10 epiphytes), horticultural escapes (14/15), native to Asia (10/15), tropical American (4/10), and Africa (1/15). Only 3 species are widespread in Florida, Eulophia graminea, Eulophia maculata, and Zeuxine strateumatica, and can be considered invasive based on their spread beyond the areas of their initial establishments. Most of the other orchid species occur in one or two counties and have spread little so are considered naturalized but not invasive. The longest naturalized orchids (5/15) escaped more than 50 years ago, another group (5/10) more than 20 years ago, while the most recently naturalized species (5/10) less than 20 years ago. The 15 naturalized orchids comprise 12% (15/117 species) of Florida’s orchid flora, which is higher than most other places except for Hawaii’s (18/21) which has only 3 native orchids. Most orchids naturalized in Florida (10/15) have also naturalized elsewhere in the world. Failure to reproduce is the reason why most orchids don’t naturalize. To attempt to understand how Florida’s 15 naturalized orchids have overcome this barrier, the literature was examined to learn what their breeding systems and pollinators are in their native areas. This enabled predictions to be made about how these orchids reproduce in Florida. Four of the orchids need no pollinators because they are autogamous or apomictic. The native region pollinators of two of the orchids occur in Florida, five of the orchids are probably pollinated by congeneric species of their native area pollinators (Apis, Centris and Xylocopa), Two of the orchids are pollinated by close analogues of their native area pollinators (butterflies and hummingbirds). Overcoming other barriers to their naturalization, such as the lack of suitable mycorrhizal fungi or the inability to deal with abiotic limitations, has occurred but are poorly known and understood.
Abstract. Pteroglossa macrantha (Orchidaceae: Spiranthinae) was previously known in Argentina only from a historical collection made by Ekman in 1908 in the province of Misiones, with no subsequent records confirming its presence in the country. During recent botanical surveys in the province of Corrientes, a new population was discovered, representing the first modern record for Argentina after more than a century and one of the southernmost confirmed occurrences of the species in the country. Detailed morphological observations confirmed its identity and revealed slight variations in leaf proportions compared with specimens from Brazil and Paraguay. The plants of this species grow in seasonally flooded alluvial grasslands on sandy substrates near the Paraná River. The regional conservation assessment, based on IUCN criteria, indicates that P. macrantha should be considered Critically Endangered (CR) in Argentina due to its extremely small area of occupancy, its occurrence in a single locality, and ongoing habitat degradation. This finding highlights the importance of the riparian grasslands of Corrientes as biodiversity refuges and priority areas for the conservation of rare and threatened orchids of the Southern Cone.
Telipogon is a highly diverse genus in the Andes, yet it remains incompletely documented in northern Peru. Telipogon vasqueznunezii is morphologically similar to T. hystrix but differs in the oblong-ligulate lip, the two small lobes at the lip base, the absence of a protrusion on the lip, and the tuft of acicular setae on the columnar appendix. A detailed description, illustrations, a distribution map, and a conservation assessment are provided here.
Five orchid species belonging to four genera, namely, Bulbophyllum deergongense, Bulbophyllum nepalense, Liparis sootenzanensis, Spiranthes himalayensis and Zeuxine gracilis, are reported for the first time from Bhutan. These findings are based on systematic native floristic diversity field surveys carried out between 2023 and 2025. We provide descriptions, along with information on type, distribution, phenology, habitat, notes, and colour plates to facilitate accurate species identification and support practical conservation efforts.
Orchidaceae is one of the most diverse plant families in Indonesia, yet many species remain poorly documented across the archipelago. Here we report ten orchid species as new national records for Indonesia: Bulbophyllum nematocaulon, Bulbophyllum sanguineomaculatum, Cleisomeria lanatum, Corybas calopeplos, and Corybas holttumii from Sumatra; Acanthophippium bicolor and Anoectochilus papuanus from Java; Dendrobium teretifolium from the Lesser Sunda Islands, Bulbophyllum thiurum from Kalimantan; and Aerides agustiana from Sulawesi. For each species, we provide taxonomic notes, distributional data, type information, phenology, ecological observations, line drawings, and photographs. These new records extend the known geographic ranges of the species and confirm the importance of field exploration and herbarium study for documenting Indonesia’s remarkable orchid diversity.
