The Florida butterfly orchid was discovered near Tampa Bay in 1846 by John Torrey and originally named Epidendrum tampense by John Lindley in 1847. In 1913, John Kunkel Small placed the orchid into the genus Encyclia established by William Jackson Hooker in 1828 and largely 'forgotten' until Epidendrum (upon a tree) became unwieldy with too many orchids not sharing the same traits. The genus Encyclia comes from the Greek enkykleomai meaning "to encircle", a reference to the lateral lobes of the lip which encircle the column, and tampensis for the area of first discovery.

Although the butterfly orchid can be found growing from full sun to shade and on a number of trees, it most frequently grows on southern live oaks (Quercus virginiana) where the rough bark gives it a good hold and traps moisture and nutrients. Full sun plants tend to be diminutive; shaded plants are larger. Typical butterfly orchid flowers are about 3 centimeters across, have green tepals streaked with brown and a white lip petal with a large dark pink spot. The tepals may vary from brown to a bright lime green with a white lip spotted or streaked with pink to a plain white lip.

Butterfly orchid flowers become fragrant around noon and remain fragrant through the afternoon when bees are at their busiest. Lightly sweet, the fragrance is reminiscent of honey, although some butterfly orchids found in south Florida smell of chocolate. Carlyle A. Luer proposed that the chocolate scented varieties received their genes from Encyclia phoenicea, a species thought once present in the state. (The Native Orchids of Florida, Carlyle A. Luer, The New York Botanical Garden, 1972)

The photographed plant was an unusually large specimen covering better than 5 feet of trunk on an old live oak in a cattle pasture. The photograph shows less than one quarter of the plant.