Cyclopogon
(pronounced: sye-kloh-POH-gon)
Classification
Cranichideae subtribe Spiranthinae. Cyclopogon has been included in a formerly broadly defined Spiranthes. Some botanists treat Cyclopogon as a monotypic genus based on the presence of a sepaline tube caused by fusion of the sepal bases in the type specie
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Overview
Terrestrials with fleshy, fasciculate roots. Leaves several, in a basal rosette, distinctly petiolate, sometimes patterned. Inflorescences erect, scapose racemes, long-pedunculate. Flowers small, membranaceous, tubular. Sepals subsimilar, free to basally fused into a tube. Petals free, appressed to the dorsal sepal. Lip clawed, sagittate-auriculate. Column cylindric, pubescent in front; pollinia 2, soft.
Etymology
From the Greek kylos, meaning circle, and pogon, meaning beard, from the long-pubescent sepal apices which resemble a circular beard when viewed from the front of the flower.
Distribution
A genus of about 55 species throughout the Neotropics with one species (escaped?) in Asia.
Care and Culture Card
See basic growing conditions and care information below.
Grow Cyclopogon in small pots with sandy loam. Provide intermediate temperatures, medium light levels and steady watering throughout the growing season. Reduce watering after flowering but the plants should not be dried out to the extent that they lose their leaves.
Literature
Burns-Balogh, P. and M. S. Foster 1985. Cyclopogon deminkiorum Burns-Balogh and M. S. Foster: a new species from Paraguay (Orchidaceae: Spiranthinae). Canad. Orchid J. 3:5-9. Calco, R. N. 1990. Four-year growth and reproduction of Cyclopogon cranichoides (Orchidaceae) in South Florida. Amer. J. Bot. 77(6):736-741.
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