Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Low growing perennials without chlorophyll, stems arising from a thick, corallike rootstock.

Leaves: Reduced to sheathing scales.

Flowers: Purple or brown striate sepals, the lip cuneate-obovate to suborbicular, 3-lobed, with membranaceous, scaled crests, the perianth 1.5 cm or longer, stamens united with the style in a column, flowers borne in a loose raceme.

Fruits: Capsule with 3 valves. Seeds numerous, minute.

Ecology: Found from - ft (-m); flowering

Distribution: Texas, Arizona; Mexico.

Notes: This lovely plant looks very much like a commercial orchid when in flower except for the red or violet stems. The keys to this species are the few-flowered racemes (not more than 8), and the lip crests scalloped and interrupted. If the lip crests are entire and the raceme has many flowers, the species is H. spicata (in Arizona).

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Unknown

Editor: LCrumbacher 2011