:''Encyclia'' is also a Greek term for the

Codex Encyclius Collections of ancient canons contain collected bodies of canon law that originated in various documents, such as papal and synodal decisions, and that can be designated by the generic term of canons. Canon law was not a finished product from the ...

''Encyclia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

s. The genus name comes from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''enkykleomai'' ("to encircle"), referring to the lateral lobes of the lip which encircle the column. It is abbreviated as ''E.'' in the horticultural trade.Alphabetical List of Standard Abbreviations for Natural and Hybrid Generic Names, Royal Horticultural Society, 2017. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/plant-registration-forms/orchid-name-abbreviations-list.pdf

Biology

The

epiphytic An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

genus ''Encyclia'' occurs in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, the Caribbean,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and other regions of the tropical Americas. It grows in lowland forests at altitudes up to 1000 meters. The distribution of the species is more or less evenly spread throughout this area. Most of these species are found in seasonally dry forests where the humidity tends to remain high throughout the year, though precipitation is infrequent, sometimes lacking for months. They are most common in dry

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

forests. Most species have stiff, drought-resistant leaves and large onion-shaped

pseudobulb The pseudobulb is a storage organ found in many epiphytic and terrestrial sympodial orchids. It is derived from a thickening of the part of a stem between leaf nodes and may be composed of just one internode or several, termed heteroblastic and ...

s.Dressler, R. L. ''The Orchids, Natural History and Classification''. The flowers arise from an apical inflorescence. This genus is

pollinated Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, a ...

by bees and birds. There are normally eight

pollinia A pollinium (plural pollinia) is a coherent mass of pollen grains in a plant that are the product of only one anther, but are transferred, during pollination, as a single unit. This is regularly seen in plants such as orchids and many species of mil ...

, but in some subgroups this is reduced to four. One species, '' Encyclia cyperifolia'', produces cylindrical, terete leaves.''Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids''.

Cultivation

Many species in this genus are cultivated as

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

s. The flowers may last over a month. They are easily overwatered and require only a periodic misting during the winter. Some species are fragrant; '' Encyclia fragrans'' produces vanilla-scented flowers. The plants have continuously growing rhizomes that eventually create a large mass. In the wild the plants shed the older pseudobulbs. In cultivation they may fail to split, so growers will divide them by hand to prevent the plants from forming unwieldy mounds. An exception is ''

Encyclia tampensis ''Encyclia tampensis'' (Encyclia from Greek - enkykleoma "to encircle" and tampensis - "Tampa") or Tampa butterfly orchid is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family, subfamily Epidendroideae. This species was first described by John ...

'', which does well in a mounded form and does not need to be divided.

Taxonomy

Cladistic research has shown that ''Encyclia'' ''sensu stricto'' is monophyletic. This genus was originally included in ''

Epidendrum ''Epidendrum'' , abbreviated Epi in the horticultural trade, is a large neotropical genus of the orchid family. With more than 1,500 species, some authors describe it as a mega-genus. The genus name (from Greek ''επί, epi'' and ''δένδρο ...

'' until William Jackson Hooker separated it in 1828. The genera ''

Euchile ''Prosthechea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). The name is derived from the Greek word ''prostheke'' (appendix), referring to the appendage on the back of the column. Appendage orchid is a common name for this g ...

'', ''

Prosthechea ''Prosthechea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). The name is derived from the Greek word ''prostheke'' (appendix), referring to the appendage on the back of the column. Appendage orchid is a common name for this ...

'' and '' Dinema'' were separated from ''Encyclia'' based on morphological analysis.Higgins, W. E. (1997). A combined molecular phylogeny of ''Encyclia'' (Orchidaceae) and relationships within Laeliinae. ''Selbyana'' 24(2) 165–79. ''Sulpitia'' Raf. is a synonym of ''Encyclia''. ''Encyclia'' can hybridize with related genera. ''E. tampensis'' is often bred for its attractive hybrids.

Biology

Cultivation

Taxonomy

Species

References

Further reading

External links