Green Wood Orchid

speciosa: showy, good-looking

Robust terrestrial, 40-100 cm tall, growing from cylindrical tubers. Leaves along the stem, lanceolate to ovate, up to 10 × 3 cm, pointed at the apex, sheathing at the base. Inflorescence more or less densely, up to 15-flowered. Bracts leafy, ovate, 30-45 mm long. Flowers green and white. Dorsal sepal erect, ovate c. 20 × 12 mm, forming a hood. Lateral sepals obliquely ovate, 19-22 mm long, slightly rolled lengthwise. Petals 2-lobed; upper lobe c. 15 mm long, linear, adnate to the dorsal sepal; lower lobe 20-25 mm long, linear. Lip 3-lobed, 26-32 mm long, joined to the stigma in the basal part; mid-lobe linear, 20-23 mm long, bent back in the middle; side lobes narrowly linear, up to 30 mm long, recurved at the apex. Spur 25-47 mm long slightly swollen at the apex.

Zimbabwe to the Western Cape, South Africa