Texas purple-spike

Stems dark red-purple, 15–40 cm; sheathing bracts 2–4. Inflorescences: floral bracts lanceolate to ovate, 3–9 × 2–4 mm, apex acute. Flowers 3–10, pedicellate, chasmogamous; sepals and petals spreading, not recurved, dark purple to maroon; dorsal sepal linear-oblong, 12–19 × 2–4 mm; lateral sepals linear-lanceolate, falcate, 12–18 × 2.5–4.5 mm; petals oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, falcate, 12–20 × 1.5–3.8 mm, apex obtuse to acute; lip ovate to ovate-cuneate, deeply 3-lobed, 12–18 × 9–16 mm, margins maroon, centrally white with purple or maroon veins, middle lobe white, rectangular to obcordate, 4–6 × 6–11 mm, margins undulate, lateral lobes incurved, obtuse to broadly rounded, at least 1/2 length of middle lobe, 5 × 5 mm, margins entire or nearly so; lamellae 5, undulate, yellow-margined, prominent; column whitish, 9–12 mm; anthers red to maroon. Capsules 15 × 5 mm.

Flowering Jun--Sep. Shaded slopes and dry, rocky creek beds in canyons, in leaf mold in oak-juniper-pinyon pine woodlands; of conservation concern; 0--400 m (c Tex.), 600--2000 m (west); Ariz., Tex.; Mexico (Baja California Sur).

Hexalectris warnockii grows in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona and in the Davis and Chisos mountains, the Edwards Plateau, and the Dallas area of Texas.