Anacheilium fragrans (Sw.) Acuña 1938
Photo by Jay Pfahl Collected in Jamaica in the cooler west central mountains where it blooms in summer
Photo by © E Schnurr
Drawing by © Fritz Hamer
TO 
and 
Common Name The Fragrant Anacheilium
Flower Size 1 1/2" [3.75 cm]
Found Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leewards, Trinidad & Tobago, Windwards, French Guiana, Surinam, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil in lowland tropical rainforests to lower montane forests up to 2000 meters in altitude as a medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with cylindric to fusiform, narrowly ovoid pseudobulbs with basal bracts that become papery with age and a single, coriaceous, ligulate oblong to narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse leaf which blooms mostly in the winter and spring, but is possible in all seasons with a well grown plant, on an apical, erect, short to 5" [to 10 cm], few to several [3 to 10] flowered, racemose, shorter than the leaves inflorescence arising on a newly matured pseudobulb subtended by a large basal bract and is quite fragrant [honey and Vanilla]. .
It grows best mounted on wood with cool to warm temperatures and is medium in size.
The major difference here between A fragrans and A aemulum is that A aemulum blooms on a newly maturing, ovoid [not tapered] pseudobulb.
This species is often confused with A chacoense which has 2 apical leaves
Synonyms Encyclia fragrans [Swartz] Lemee 1955; Epidendrum cochleatum Curtiss; Epidendrum cordatum Ruiz & Pav. 1798; *Epidendrum fragrans Sw. 1788; Epidendrum fragrans var. ionoleucum Hoffm. ex Barb Rod 1881; Epidendrum fragrans var. magnum Stein. 1892; Epidendrum fragrans var. pachupus Schlechter 1922; Epidendrum ionoleucum Hoffm. ex Rchb.f 1852; Epidendrum lineatum G. Salisb. 1796; Epidendrum vaginatum Sesse & Mocino 1894; Hormidium fragran [Sw] Brieger 1961; Prosthechea fragrans (Sw.) W. E. Higgins 1997
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ;
Prodr.: 123. Sw. 1788 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Prodr. Stirp. Chap. Allerton: 10 Salisb. 1796 as Epidendrum lineatum;
Verz. Orchid., ed. 3: 63 Salisb. 1844 as Epidendrum ionoleucum;
Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854 as Epidendrum fragans;
Gen. Spec. Orchid. 2: 136 Barb Rodr. 1881 as Epidendrum fragrans var ionoleucum;
Orchid.-Buch: 230 Stein 1891 as Epidendrum fragrans var magnum;
Fl. Mexic., ed. 2: 201 Sesse & Moc. 1894 as Epidendrum cochleatum;
Fl. Mexic., ed. 2: 201 Sesse & Moc. 1894 as Epidendrum vaginatum;
Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Epidendrum fragrans photo good;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 6: 69 Schlechter 1919 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 247 Schlechter 1920 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as Epidendrum fragrans drawing fide;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17: 32. Panama Schlechter 1922 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17: 32. Panama Schlechter 1922 as Epidendrum fragrans var pachypus;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 35: 71 Schlechter 1925 as Epidenrum fragrans;
The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Bol. Estaçión Exp. Agron. Santiago de las Vegas 60: 86 Acuña 1939 as Anacheilium fragrams;
Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939 as Epidendrum fragrans;
The Orchids of Panama Williams 1946 Epidendrum fragrans as comparison to A spondianum;
Iconografia de Orchidaceae Do Brasil Hoehne 1949 as Epidendrum fragrans drawing fide;
Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames and Corell 1952 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956 as Epidendrum fragrans;
AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Fieldiana Schweinfurth 1959 as Epidendrum cordatum;
Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Fieldiana Schweinfurth 1959 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960 as Epidendrum fragrans;
AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 9 1961 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Brittonia 13: 264 Dressler 1961 as Encyclia fragrans;
AOS Bulletin Vol 31 No 3 1962 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Epidendrum fragrans;
AOS Bulletin Vol 36 No 10 1966 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Venezuelan Orchids Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 as Epidendrum fragrans;
AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967 as Epidendrum fragrans;
AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 as Epidendrum fragrans drawing fide;
Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 as Epidendrum fragrans
Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 as Epidendrum fragrans drawing fide;
Las Orquedias de El Salvador Hamer 1974 as Epidendrum fragrans;
Orchidaceae Brasilensis Band I Pabst & Dungs 1975 as Epidendrum fragrans;
The Genus Encyclia in Mexico Dressler & Pollard 1976 as Encyclia fragrans;
Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as Hormidium fragrans photo ok;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as Epidendrum fragrans drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 690 Dodson 1982 as Encyclia fragrans drawing fide;
Flora Novo-Galaciana Vol 16 McVaugh 1985 as excluded species Encyclia fragrans;
The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 as Encyclia fragrans photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 56 No 3 1987 photo as Epidendrum fragrans;
Venezuelan Orchids Dunsterville 1987 as Epidendrum fragrans photo fide;
Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 as Encyclia fragrans drawing fide;
Native Colombian Orchid Vol 1 COS 1990 photo not = A venezuelana;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo not = A venezuela;
Manual of Orchids Stewart 1992 as Encyclia fragrans;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1425 Mora & Atwood 1992 as Encyclia fragrans drawing fide;
Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Launert 1992 as Encyclia fragrans photo fide;
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchds Pridgeon 1992 as Encyclia fragrans;
A Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993 as Encyclia fragrans;
AOS Bulletin Vol 63 # 3 1994 photo fide;
Phytologia 82: 377 W E Higgins 1997 publ. 1998 as Prosthechea fragrans;
Native Colombian Orchid Vol 6 COS 1998 errata = A venezuelana;
Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glenn 2002 as Protheschea fragrans;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 as Prosthechea fragrans drawing fide;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 as Prosthechea fragrans drawing fide;
The Cattleyas and Their Relatives, the Debatable Epidendrum Withner and Harding 2004 photo fide;
Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004 as Protheschea fragrans photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 73 No 8 2004 photo as Protheschea fragrans;
The Orchids Of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 as Protheschea fragrans photo fide;
Orquideas Da Chapada Diamantina Brito & Cribb 2005 as Protheschea fragrans;
AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 9 2008 photo fide;
Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide as Prosthechea fragrans;
Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 as Prosthechea fragrans photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 79 #10 2010 photo fide;
Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo fide;
Orquideas de Roirama Luz & Franco 2012 as Prosthechea fragrans photo fide;
Orchid Digest Vol 80 #2 2016 as Prosthechea fragrans;
Orquidário 30: 50 L C Menezes 2016 Prosthechea fragran f alba without type contrary to Art. 40.1 (ICN 2012);
Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 as Prosthechea fragrans photo fide
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:403 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 drawing/photo fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
