IOSPE PHOTOS

Gomphichis caucana Schltr. 1920

Plant in situ and Inflorescence Photos by © Universidad de los Andes and the Chingaza Botanical Website

Another Flower? Photo by © Alexander Hirtz

EARLIER

Common Name The Cauca Gomphichis [refers to the department of Colombia where it is found]

Flower Size .2" [5mm]

Found in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador in wet upper montane cloud forests at elevations of 2700 to 3800 meters as a small sized, cold growing terrestrial with a fan of 8, basal, oblanceolate-ligulate, fleshy, acute to subacuminate, tapering towards the base leaves that blooms in the winter, spring and earlier summer on an erect, 16" [40 cm] long, cylindric, densely many flowered inflorescence enveloped by loose-fitting, lanceolate, subacute, pubescent sheaths, the lower ones may be foliaceous.

CAUTION I have no way of verifying this determination as it involves a dissection of the flower so please use with caution. The leaves in all drawings are elongate-linear to oblanceolate-ligulate, those in the photo are triangular-ovate and very short.

Synonyms Gomphichis foliosa Ames 1922

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 53 Schlechter1920; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 57: 57 Schlechter1929 drawing good; Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 1 Foldats as G foliosa Drawing hmm leaves wrong; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1976 drawing hmm leaves are wrong; Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Garay 1978 drawing hmm leaves are wrong; Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing hmm leaves are wrong; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing hmm leaves are wrong; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson #661 2001 Photo good; Orchids of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 as G macbridei pg 149 photo fide to Hirtz another Flower?; Nowak, S., Szlachetko, D.L., Mytnik-Ejsmont, J. et al. Plant Syst Evol ( 301: 61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-014-1054-4 2015; Orquideas Tesoro de Colombia Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing ok/photo not = G valida; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 sa G cf caucana photo good

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