Microchilus giganteus (Dodson) E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

Drawing by © A Hirtz and The Epidendra Website

Common Name The Giant Microchilus [refers both to the plant and to the flowers]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Pastaza province of Ecuador at elevations around 2700 meters as a giant sized, cold growing terrestrial orchid with a repent becoming erect stem carrying in a spiral, dark green, narrowly elliptic-ovate, acute, gradually narrowing below into the petiolate base leaves that blooms in the summer on an erect, terminal, to 9" [22.5 cm] long peduncle, rachis to 8" [20 cm] long, many flowered inflorescence

”This remarkable species is said to be nearly three meters tall, making it the tallest plant among the Goodyerinae. However some doubt must be attached to the stated height of the plant because the illustration accompanying the description indicates a height of about 1.8 meters.” Ormeros 2005

Synonyms Aspidogyne gigantea (Dodson) Ormerod 2005; *Erythrodes gigantea Dodson 2003

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Orquideologia Vol 22 #3 pg 196 Dodson 2003 as Erythrodes gigantea Drawing fide;

Taiwania 50: 5 Ormerod 2005 as Aspidogyne gigantea;

* Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 197: 339 E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

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