Elleanthus fractiflexus Schltr. 1921 SECTION Chloidelyna (Reichb. f.) Garay
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Drawing by © Dodson
EARLY
Flower Size The Fractiflex Elleanthus
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Panama, Cauca department of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru on steep embankments in very wet montane forests at elevations of 900 to 2500 meters as a small sized, warm to cold growing terrestrial or epiphyte with a terete, erect, cane-like stem enveloped completely by adpressed, leaf-bearing sheaths and carrying thin, plicate, strongly veined, distichous, linear, unequally 3 denticulate apically, mucronate dorsally, mucro not surpassing the apex of the leaf blade, acute leaves that blooms in the fall and early winter on a terminal, much longer than the terminal leaf, subsessile, sub-globose, 2.2" [6.5 cm] long, fractiflex, sparsely furfuraceous, loosely several flowered inflorescence with purple, distichous, basally non-imbricating, ovate-cymbiform, acuminate, much longer than the flowers floral bracts.
"Characterized by the furfuraceous sepals, flabellate or transversely elliptic lip with obscure basal callii and a transverse thickened ridge in front of them." Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023
Synonyms Adeneleuterophora fractiflexa (Schltr.) Dudek & Szlach. 2010; Elleanthus tenellus L.O.Williams 1941
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 8: 37 Schlechter Ecuador 1921;
Lilloa 6: 241 L O Williams 1941 as E tenellus;
Flora Brasilica Vol XII II 13-43 Hoehne 1945;
Orchids of Peru Vol 5 Schweinfurth 1970;
Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Garay 1978 drawing ok;
Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 370 Dodson 1980 drawing ok;
Die Orchideen lieferung #13 753 - 816 Bulbophyllinae Brieger 1983;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 449 Dodson 1989 drawing fide;
Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 photo #830 fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing good;
Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010 drawing good;
Richardiana 11: 4 Szlach & Dudek 2010 as Adeneleuterophora fractiflexa
Orchids of the Department of Valle de Cauca Colombia Vol 1 Kolanowska & Szlachetko 2012 as Adeneleuterophora fractiflexa drawing good/photo fide;
Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide;
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:344 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 as Adeneleuterophora fractiflexa drawing fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
