Malaxis insperata Dressler 2004

TYPE Drawing by © Robert Dressler

LATE

Common Name The Surprising Malaxis

Flower Size .1" [2.5 mm]

Found in Nicaragua in grassy wet forests at elevations around 1200 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature szied, cool growing terrestrial with up to 1.2" [3 cm] between each conic-ovoid, exposed pseudobulbs carrying 2, apical, ovate, acuminate, petiolate base leaves tha blooms in the late spring on an erect, peduncle 3.2 to 8" [8 to 20 cm] long, rachis to .72" [1.8 cm] long, subumbellate, several flowered inflorescence with triangular-ovate, acute to acuminate floral bracts and carrying green flowers.

"This species is vegetatively similar to Malaxis excavata with conic-ovoid pseudobulbs, but the flowers are superficially more like those of M. brachyrrhynchos, with the lip entire and obtuse, rather than three-lobed. The epithet, insperata, means unexpected or surprising. I thought I had finished with Mesoamerican Malaxis, when I requested additional Nicaraguan material, to see if M. excavata actually occurred in Nicaragua. Not only is M. excavata present in Nicaragua, but one of the specimens so identified proved to be this unexpected new species." Robert Dressler 2003 drawing fide;

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Selbyana 24(2): 141-143. Dressler 2003 drawing fide; *LANKESTERIANA 4(1): 97. Dressler 2004

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