Microchilus claviger (Rchb.f.) E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021
Plant and Flowers in situ Costa Rica
Photos by © Federico Oviedo-Brenes and The OTS Plant Database Website
Drawing by © The Epidendra Website
Drawing by © Dusnterville
Common Name The Clavate Microchilus
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Chiapas state of Mexico,Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Antioquia and Valle de Cauca departments of Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, Fr Guiana, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru in rain forests at elevations around 350 to 2050 meters as a large sized, hot to cool growing terrestrial with a stout, glabrous, dark green, decumbent stem bearing roots in the basal portion and as it becomes erect and towards the middle carries clear medium green, with a satiny sheen with duller green beneath, lanceolate, acute to acuminate, gradually narrowing below into the subpetiolate base leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, erect, 4" [10 cm] long, peduncle subtended by a few glabrous sheaths, racemose, browny green, densely white pubescent, many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, sordid pink to light maroon with white hairs, drying reddish brown, shorter to a bit longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying externally pubescent, pink, pale red and white, reddish to brownish orange flowers with a white to cream white colored lip, white spur, white, umn wh column
"M clavigera is similar to M peteriana but both can be distinguished by the form of the epichile which is sagitatae and apiculate in M clavigera versus transversely deltoid and acute in M peteriana. But above all the 2 species can be separable based on the spur form and size. In M claviger it is much swollen in the apical half.088 to .1" [2.2 to 2.5 mm] wide and in M peteriana the spur is narrowly cylindrical and .04 to .06" [1 to 1.5 mm] wide." Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017
Synonyms Aspidogyne clavigera (Rchb.f.) Meneguzzo 2012; Aspidogyne clavigera var. rhodostachys (Ormerod) Ormerod 2013; Erythrodes clavigera (Rchb.f.) Ames 1922; Erythrodes peteriana (Cogn.) Ames 1922; Ligeophila clavigera (Rchb.f.) Garay 1977; Ligeophila clavigera var. rhodostachys Ormerod 2008; *Physurus claviger Rchb.f. 1856;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Bonplandia (Hannover) 4: 211 Rchb.f 1856 as Physurus clavigerus;
Studies in the family Orchidaceae Vol VII: 70 Ames 1922 as Erythrodes clavigera;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1: 153 Schweinfurth 1958 as Erythrodes clavigera;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 5 Dusterville and Garay 1972 as Erythrodes clavigera drawing fide;
Orchidaceae Brasilensis Vol 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 as Erythrodes clavigera drawing fide; Bradea 2: 195 Garay 1977 as Ligeophila clavigera;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing/photo fide;
Manual De Plants De Costa Rica Vol III Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 as Erythrodes clavigera drawing good;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 13: 62 Ormerod 2008 as Ligeophila clavigera var. rhodostachys
Harvard Pap. Bot. 13: 60 Ormerod 2008 as Ligeophila clavigera var. rhodostachys drawing fide
Orchids of French Guiana Szlatchenko, Veyret, Mytnik-Ejsmont, Sawicka, Rutowski and Baranow 2012 as L peteriana drawing good/photo fide;
Orchids of French Guiana Szlatchenko, Veyret, Mytnik-Ejsmont, Sawicka, Rutowski and Baranow 2012 drawing fide;
Orquidário 26: 89 Meneguzzo 2012 as Aspidogyne clavigera
Orchids of the Department of Valle del Cauca Vol 1 Kolanowski & Szlachetko 2012 drawing fide;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 18: 52 Ormerod 2013 as Aspidogyne clavigera var. rhodostachys;
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1: 387 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 as Ligeophila clavigera drawing fide;
* J. Linn. Soc. 197: 338 E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021
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