Eulophia alta(L.) Fawc. & Rendle

Wild cocowild coco

WFO wfo-0000959647 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Eulophia alta, photographed by Reinaldo de Oliveira Elias
fig. a Reinaldo de Oliveira Elias, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-02-20 / obs. 181719369
Eulophia alta, photographed by Tom Field
fig. b Tom Field, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169045677
Eulophia alta, photographed by Mike Ostrowski
fig. c Mike Ostrowski, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 110411831
Eulophia alta, photographed by Leonardo Bergamini
fig. d Leonardo Bergamini, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61765180
Eulophia alta, photographed by Leonardo Bergamini
fig. e Leonardo Bergamini, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181363493
Eulophia alta, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. f Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174851775
Eulophia alta, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. g Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174867938
Eulophia alta, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. h Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166692962

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 56 botanical countries

Regions where Eulophia alta is native: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Florida, Georgia, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Central American Pacific Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. AngolaBurundiCameroonCentral African RepublicDR CongoEthiopiaGabonGhanaGuineaIvory CoastLiberiaNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanUgandaZambiaZimbabweFloridaGeorgiaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralCentral American Pacific Is.ColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela BahamasLeeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Eulophia alta, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Central American Pacific Is. CPI
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Angola ANG AFRICA
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
DR Congo ZAI
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Ivory Coast IVO
Liberia LBR
Nigeria NGA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Georgia GEO
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 121 in flower of 168 examined

Peak flowering in Sep. Each bar is the share of Eulophia alta observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 121 of 168 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 504 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 9.9 °C 13.5 °C 22.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.3 °C 31.1 °C 33.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,305 mm 1,451 mm 2,530 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 25 mm 163 mm 335 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 504 research-grade observations of Eulophia alta that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 32 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Bletia alta (L.) Hitchc.
  • Cypripedium epidendricum Vell.
  • Cyrtopera alta (L.) Stehlé
  • Cyrtopera amazonica Barb.Rodr.
  • Cyrtopera amazonica (Barb.Rodr.) Barb.Rodr.
  • Cyrtopera longifolia (Kunth) Rchb.f.
  • Cyrtopera longifolia var. amazonica (Barb.Rodr.) Cogn.
  • Cyrtopera longifolia var. pachystelidia Rchb.f.
  • Cyrtopera vellosiana Barb.Rodr.
  • Cyrtopera woodfordii Lindl.
  • Cyrtopera woodfordii (Sims) Lindl.
  • Cyrtopera woodfordii var. pachystelidia Rchb.f.
  • Cyrtopodium woodfordii Sims
  • Dendrobium longifolium Kunth
  • Eulophia alta f. flavescens (Schltr.) F.Barros
  • Eulophia alta f. pallida P.M.Br.
  • Eulophia alta f. pelchatii P.M.Br.
  • Eulophia alta var. alba L.C.Menezes
  • Eulophia alta var. pachystelidia (Rchb.f.) G.A.Romero
  • Eulophia longifolia (Kunth) Schltr.
  • Eulophia longifolia var. amazonica (Barb.Rodr.) Cogn.
  • Eulophia longifolia var. flavescens Schltr.
  • Eulophia woodfordii (Sims) Rolfe
  • Govenia barbata Poepp. & Endl.

and 8 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.