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Polystachya concreta; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-20

Polystachya concreta (Jacq.) Garay & H.R.Sweet

Greater yellowspike orchid; Yellow Helmet Orchid; Great yellow spike orchid; Yellow spike orchid

Orchidaceae · Florida, Mexico Southeast +27

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Polystachya concreta, photograph (c) Brynn Fricke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Polystachya concreta, photograph (c) Brynn Fricke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Polystachya concreta, photograph (c) harrii, some rights reserved (CC BY)Polystachya concreta, photograph (c) harrii, some rights reserved (CC BY)Polystachya concreta, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPolystachya concreta, photograph (c) Brenda O'Grady, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 69 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
17.1°C
Record low 12.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,966mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Polystachya concreta, the greater yellowspike orchid, is a species of orchid native to tropical and subtropical America, Africa and Asia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Polystachya concreta", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,474 mm of 1,896 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 2.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,896 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,474 mm of it May to December. Wettest month October at 223 mm, driest month February at 85 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,292 mm to 3,002 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,966 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,896 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 17.1 °C, the absolute minimum 12.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.9 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 16.9 °C to 23.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.8 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -1 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Polystachya concreta through the yearWarmest months August and September, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 20.9 °C; 1,896 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER12.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–42RH 65–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 134 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 23–2925 / 23–2926 / 23–2926 / 24–2927 / 23–2927 / 23–3027 / 22–3028 / 23–3128 / 24–3027 / 24–3026 / 24–2926 / 23–29
Night °C21 / 17–2421 / 17–2321 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 16–2522 / 15–2522 / 15–2623 / 15–2623 / 16–2622 / 16–2522 / 18–2521 / 17–24
Rain mm114 / 46–28485 / 49–25693 / 52–270130 / 80–305178 / 100–346172 / 82–274157 / 62–277180 / 48–298218 / 69–303223 / 112–307199 / 73–291147 / 49–238
DLI32 / 26–3535 / 30–3839 / 29–4242 / 26–4340 / 24–4241 / 23–4340 / 24–4240 / 25–4137 / 26–3934 / 29–3631 / 26–3530 / 25–35
RH %66 / 60–7265 / 59–7165 / 59–7166 / 60–7167 / 62–7266 / 63–7366 / 62–7366 / 61–7366 / 61–7367 / 62–7468 / 62–7366 / 61–71
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 134 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (171 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1306:2042 (24.675, -77.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 134 distinct grid cells holding 171 of the 172 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1306:2042 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 24.50_-78.125, lapse-corrected -1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFlorida, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Panama, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northwest · introduced: Hawaii · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker25.448, -80.711 · in the densest population, 277 records (32% of those in range)
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte or geophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 854 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 171 of them in the land cells it reads, of 172 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 477 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6825 km away. 520 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 682 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 854 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Polystachya concreta, photograph 1did not loadPolystachya concreta, photograph 2did not loadPolystachya concreta, photograph 3did not loadPolystachya concreta, photograph 4did not loadPolystachya concreta, photograph 5did not loadPolystachya concreta, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Brynn Fricke, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) harrii, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Brenda O'Grady, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Cyathea arborea Cyathea arborea West Indian treefern Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreHeliconia bihai Heliconia bihai Macaw-flower Photo: CC0, author not statedTectaria trifoliata Tectaria trifoliata Threeleaf halberd fern Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciPeperomia magnoliifolia Peperomia magnoliifolia Spoonleaf peperomia Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciPilea inaequalis Pilea inaequalis West Indian clearweed Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciNephrolepis rivularis Nephrolepis rivularis Streamside swordfern Photo: CC BY, Marcio Santos Ferreira

Other Polystachya 14 in the reference

Polystachya adansoniae Polystachya adansoniae Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, OrchiPolystachya affinis Polystachya affinis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Justin PonderPolystachya bella Polystachya bella Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, C T Johansson Polystachya cerea Orchidaceae Polystachya cultriformis Polystachya cultriformis Powder Orchid Photo: CC BY, Jason BergerPolystachya foliosa Polystachya foliosa Lesser yellowspike orchid Photo: CC BY, Letizia WeichgrebePolystachya galeata Polystachya galeata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Vincent DroissartPolystachya lineata Polystachya lineata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Victor De la CruzPolystachya neobenthamia Polystachya neobenthamia Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, OrchiPolystachya nyanzensis Polystachya nyanzensis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, AveraterPolystachya ottoniana Polystachya ottoniana White Snout Orchid Photo: CC BY, Henry de Lange Polystachya paniculata Orchidaceae all 15 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Callista flavescens; Cranichis luteola; Dendrobium flavescens; Dendrobium parvum; Dendrobium polystachyum and 66 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Polystachya flavescens; Polystachya mauritiana: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
(Jacq.) Garay & H.R.Sweet
Native to
Florida, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala +26
Wild records
854 in range · 477 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 24.50_-78.125, lapse-corrected -1 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 136 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…