Microchilus pumilus (Cogn.) E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

Drawing by © Dunsterville and Garay

Collection Sheet and Drawing ????

Drawing and Collection sheet by © Jany Renz and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Tiny Flowered Aspidogyne

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Trinidad & Tobago, Surinam, Guyana, Venezuela, Peru and northern Brazil at elevations around 600 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, warm growing terrestrial with an ascending, thin stem carrying 4 to 5, narrowly ovate, erect-patent, membraneous, acute, rounded and abrupty attenuate into the pseudo-petiolate base leaves that blooms in the late fall and early winter on a terminal, erect, short, villous, many flowered inflorescence with narrowly ovate, shortly acuminate, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying small, resupinate, shortly pedicellate, whitish flowers with a green ovary. .

"Separable from all other Colombian species by the peculiar epichile which is deeply bilobed, with each lobe .06 to .14" [1.5 to 3.5 mm] long, and .02 to .04" [.5 to 1 mm] wide, strongly falcate, wiudening towards the obliquely truncate apex. The epichile is strongly reflexed just above the base, hence both lobes are directed forward." Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017

CAUTION With the references that I have at this time I cannot verify the coolection sheet and drawing by Renz determination. The Collection sheet is from Colombia and Kew does not cite that as a country of provenance, Also the apex of the lip seems much narrower than the Venezuelan drawing by Dunsterville so please use with caution!

SynonymsAspidogyne pumila (Cogn.) Garay 1977, Erythrodes pumila (Cogn.) Pabst 1957; *Physurus pumilus Cogn. 1906

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

Fl. Bras. 3(6): 545 Cogniaux 1906 as Physurus pumilus

Flora Brasilica Vol XII II 13-43: 353 Hoehne 1945 as Physurus humilis

Flora Brasilica Vol XII II 13-43: tab 191 fig 1 Hoehne 1945 as Physurus humilis drawing good;

Orquídea (Rio de Janeiro) 18: 215 Pabst 1957 as Erythrodes pumila

Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 1: 131 Pabst 1975;

Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 1: 287 Fig 515 Pabst 1975 drawing fide;

Bradea 2: 204 Garay 1977 as Aspidogyne pumila

Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville and Garay 1979 drawing fide;

Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Romero and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;

Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1: 434 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 as Aspidogyne pumila drawing fide;

* Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 197: 343 E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

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