Telipogon venustus Schltr. 1920 Photo courtesy of Oliver Lenhard and his Orchideen Website

Common Name or Meaning The Charming Telipogon

Flower Size 5/8" [1.4 cm]

Found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in upper, wet, montane cloud forests on scrubby trees at elevations of 2000 to 3300 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing epiphyte that dies back after blooming and takes a rest until the next growth season so do not throw out until you are sure that it is dead, with a creeping, elongate, flattened stem enveloped completely by distant persistant leaf bases carrying small, ovate, apically acute, conduplicate below leaves and blooms on a one to a few terminal, oval in cross-section, to 16" [40 cm] long inflorescence with ovate, spreading bracts and occuring at most any time of the year..

References W3 Tropicos [http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/vast.html] , Kew Monocot list [ http://www.kew.org/wcsp/home.do ], IPNI [ http://www.us.ipni.org/ipni/plantsearch?request_type=search&output_format=query&ret_defaults=on ] Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 996 Dodson 1984

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