Oeceoclades maculata

Oeceoclades maculata, sometimes known as the monk orchid or African spotted orchid, is a terrestrial orchid species in the genus Oeceoclades that is native to tropical Africa and now naturalized in South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Florida in North America. It was first described by the English botanist John Lindley as Angraecum maculatum in 1821 based on a specimen collected from South America. Lindley later revised his original placement and moved the species to the genus Oeceoclades in 1833. Oeceoclades maculata was first found naturalized outside of Africa in Brazil in 1829. It was later found throughout the Neotropics and specifically in Puerto Rico in the mid-1960s and in Florida in the early 1970s. It is considered to be one of the most successful invasive orchids. When Leslie Andrew Garay and Peter Taylor resurrected and revised the genus Oeceoclades in 1976, they recognized O. maculata and two related species, O. mackenii and O. monophylla. All three were describe......read more on Wikipedia.