!Arpophyllum spicatum La Llave & Lex. 1825 In situ in Mexico, Photo by Edouard Faria

Flower Closeup Photos by © Eric Hunt and His Orchid Website

Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Greg and Kerri Steenbeeke

Common Name Sickle-leafed Arpophyllum

Flower Size Up To 1/2"+ [to 1.5 cm]

A medium to large sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte with a single curved, terete "v" shaped leaf that is found on trees, a lithophyte on rocks as well as a terrestrial at elevations of 1000 to 2400 meters, found in open mountain forests, this species is found from Mexico Guatemala, Hinduras, Belize and Costa Rica with compressed, several jointed stems covered by tubular sheaths giving rise to a single, apical, ligulate, obtuse, fleshy coriaceous, conduplicate and keeled on the underside leaf that blooms in the spring on a erect, terminal, 6" [15 cm] long, densely many flowered raceme with a compressed basal sheath and carrying many small flowers held in a cylyndrical shape, held above the leaves.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970; Orquedias Michoacanas Lapiner; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Orquedias de El Salvador Hamer 1974; An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1982; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 1 1983 photo ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 54 No 7 1985 drawing fide; The Orchids of Guatemala and Belize; Ames and Correl 1985; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Laurent 1992; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Cattleyas and Their Relatives Vol 5 Withner 1998 photo fide; Algunas Orquideas de Oaxaca Suarez 2004 photo fide; Flora's Orchid Nash & La Croix 2005; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 4 2008 photo; Orchid Digest Vol 75 #1 2011 photo fide;