Oncidium ensatum Lindl. 1842 SECTION Oblongata
Photo by Carl Luer
Photo by Lourens Grobler.
Plant in situ Everglades National Park
Photos by David R. McAdoo
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Common Name The Sword Shaped Oncidium
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Florida, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama in low altitude, wet forests on rocky slopes at elevations below 1000 meters as a large sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte or terrestrial with compressed, longitudinally ribbed, pale green pseudobulbs enveloped basally by imbricating sheaths with the uppermost being leaf-bearing and carrying 2, apical, erect, linear-ensiform, subcoriaceous, dorsally carinate, conduplicate below into the base leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an axillary, to 6' [2 m] long, arching, paniculate inflorescence arising on a mature pseudobulb.
Plants from the Caribbean attributed to this name are often listed under Oncidium floridanum and many references make them synomonous with O ensatum taking precedence.
Synonyms Cyrtopodium verrucosum Griseb. 1866; Oncidium cerebriferum Rchb.f 1852; Oncidium confusum Rchb.f. 1858;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 as O cerebriferum drawing; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as Cyrtopodium verrucosum; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922 as Oncidium confusum drawing ok; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922 as Oncidium cerebriferum; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17: 82. Panama Schlechter 1922 as O cerebriferum; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17: 83. Panama Schlechter 1922 as O confusum; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Part 5 Foldats 1970 drawing fide; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 as Oncidium cerebriferum drawing/photo ok; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1055 Dodson 1984 drawing fide; Flora Novo-Galaciana Vol 16 McVaugh 1985; Orchid Digest Vol 55 No 4 1991 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #3 1997 photo fide; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1999 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 33 - 36 2057 - 2308 Brieger 1997 photo fide; Harvard Pap. Bot. 5 #2: Carnevali etal. 2001; The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2002; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Oncidium Vol 1 Koniger 2004 as O confusum drawing/photo fide; Oncidium Vol 2 Koniger 2005 drawing/photo fide; The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Laramendi 2005 photofide ; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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