Dichaea elliptica Dressler & Folsom 2002 SECTION Dichaeopsis

Photo by © Franco Pupulin

Common Name The Elliptic Dichaea [refers to the leaves]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found only in Costa Rica and Panama at elevations around 650 to 1500 meters as a miniature to small sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with an erect to pendent, puberulent stem carrying several, distichous, elliptic to lanceolate-elliptic, acuminate, hispid ciliate apically, conduplicate below into the base leaf that is adpressed to the stem that blooms in the summer on an axillary, short, .28 to 1/2" [.7 to 1.2 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with a basally clasping broadly ovate, carinate, acute to apiculate floral bract and a muricate ovary

Dichaea elliptica differs from D. camaridioides in that it has a distinct, strap-like ligule, rather than a triangular projection of the ventral margin of the stigma.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *LANKESTERIANA 3: 25-29. 2002; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Hammel, Grayum, Herrera & Zamora 2003; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Pupulin 2005 photo fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 5 Epidendroideae Part 2 Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase and Rasmusen 2009 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #2 2011 photo fide; Orchids of the Darien Gap Kolanowska 2014 drawing fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018

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