Bulbophyllum minutum Thouars 1822 SECTION Bifalcula Schlechter 1925
Photo by © M Kindler
Photo by © François Vandeschricke and The Orchidees de Reunion Website
photo by © Rogier Van Vugt and Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria
Plant and Flowers? in situ Reunion NOT
Photo by © François Vandeschricke and The Orchidees de Reunion Website
Herbarium Specimen © Maintained by Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria
TYPE Drawing © Thouars
THROUGH MID
Common Name The Tiny Bulbophyllum
Flower Size
Found in Madagascar, the Mascarenes and Reunion in semi-deciduous forests at elevations of sea level to 800 meters as a mini-miniature sized epiphyte with an orbicular pseudobulb carrying two, apical, shortly elliptic, truncate, apically bilobed, basally clasping leaf that blooms in the spring through mid fall on an erect, [3.6 to 4.8" [9 to 12 cm] long overall, rachis very thin, very sinuate, successively few, 14 to 15 flowered inflorescence with narrow, very acute, longer than the pedicel floral bracts.
CAUTION !!! The first photo above matches Cribb's 2009, Bosser & Lecoufles 2015; Hervout 2018 and Artuso, Gamisch, Staedler, Schoenberger and Comes 2021 photos exactly, the other photos above do not match any of the descriptions. Thouars did have a type drawing but the type specimen does not have any flowers nor does the type preserved in Paris, leaving the determination somewhat tenuous by anyone, but, Cribb's and Kindler's photos does show the very thin, zig-zag, short rachis while the other photos and the herbarium specimen do not and they are all also taken in Reunion so I tend to follow Cribb--- BUT Please Use with CAUTION!!!!
Synonyms Bulbophyllum implexum Jum. & H.Perrier 1912; Phyllorkis minuta (Thouars) Kuntze 1891
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Historie Particulier des Plantes Orchidees Recueilles Sur Trois Iles Australes d'Afrique Thouars 1822 drawing fide; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/81; Orchids of Madagascar Hermans, Du Puy, Cribb And Bosser 2007; A field Guide to the Orchids of Madagascar Cribb & Hermans 2009 photo fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 6 Epidendroideae Pt 3 Pridgeon, Cribb Chase & Ramussen 2014; Les Orchidees de Madagascar Bosser & Lecoufle 2015 photo fide; A la Recherche des Orchidees de Madagascar Hervouet 2018 photo fide; The New Phytologist Vol 232 #2 Artuso, Gamisch, Staedler, Schoenberger and Comes 2021 photo fide
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