Malaxis urbana E.W.Greenw. 1992

TYPE Drawing TYPE Drawing © by Salazar and The Herbario AMO Website

Common Name The Urban Malaxis [refers to its being discovered in a suburb of Oaxaca]

Flower Size .1" [2.5 mm]

Found in Mexico and Oaxaca states of Mexico damong grasses, herbs, shrubs, scattered small trees of Acacia and Copal, with scattered xerophytes such as Agave and Opuntia, and a few dry-country orchids including Bletia parkinsonii and two species of Habenaria. The area has been much disturbed, as for twenty or more years it has been used occasionaly for grazing animals at elevations around 1650 meters as a small sized, cool growing terrestrial with a subterraneous, subspherical, broadly rounded slightly oblique, very pale brown corms, giving rise to an erect, stout, 4" [10 cm] long stem carrying 2, alternate , from the basal nodes of the corm, tubular, concentric, large diameter, nearly round, apices shortly rounded, margin usually broadly rounded, lower (outer) sheath short, below ground, splitting near the base as the corm develops, both shortly narrowed just above the corm, then dilated to about .56 to .64” [1.4-1.6 cm] long in large plants, margins entire, many-veined (ca. 25); surfaces slightly irregular, with a very low, rounded axial keel and a similar keel marking the fused margins, lustrous, minutely colliculate, the cells in longitudinal rows, light green sheaths and 2 alternate, rather stiff, crisp, tubular-petiolate, subequal, ovate, sub-acute to sub-obtuse rounded, many veined, medium green leaves that blooms in the summer from a depression in the oblique, apical surface of the corm just below the apex inside the inner petiole, abruptly decurved to lie in a shallow groove towards the apex of the corm, then shortly upturned to an erect, long, slender, nearly square, 4-keeled, with a few extra keels near the apex, the extreme base round, to about 12" [30 cm] long, including the inflorescence, short, dense, subcapitate raceme of up to 100 flowers opening in succession from below and fading in the same order, buds, flowers, and capsules present simultaneously, about 20-25 flowers open at the same time, with horizontal, fleshy, stiff, triangular, acute, deeply canaliculate basally, flatter apically, arcuate downwards 45 to 90 degrees, mostly aboye the middle floral bracts and carrying small, inconspicuos flowers

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *ORQUIDEA (MEX.) 12(2): 200. Greenwood Febrero 1992 photo/drawing fide; Orquideas del Estado de Morelos ORQUÍDEA (MÉX.) VOLUMEN 16 NÚMERO ÚNICO enero 2002 drawing fide/photo fide;

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