!Bifrenaria atropurpurea [Lodd.]Lindley 1832 Photo courtesy of Mauro Peixoto Copyrighted and his Brazilian Plants Website

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Common Name The Black-Purple Bifernaria

Flower Size 3" [5.5 cm]

This is a Brazilian medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphytic or lithophytic species found in the Atlantic forest, in the southeast area , found in open spaces, usually on rocks found at elevations of 200 to 2000 meters in mountainous, wet tropical forests with egg shaped, 4 angled, pseudobulbs and a solitary, to 10" [25 cm] long, apical, broad-elliptic, acuminate, erect, glabrous, coriaceous leaf that has 3 prominent veins beneath and blooms through the spring in Brazil on a 3" [7.5 cm] long, basal, racemose, semi-erect, inflorescence arising on a newly matured pseudobulb with 3 to 5, fleshy, fragrant flowers. This is the type species for the genus.

Synonyms *Maxillaria atropurpurea Lodd. 1832

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1982; Flora Brasilica Hoehne 1953; Orchidaceae Brasilense Pabst & Dungs 1970; Orchids of Brazil McQueen 1993; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb & Laurent 1982