Barbosella australis (Cogn.) Schltr. 1918
Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt
Photo by © Luiz Filipe Varela and his Flicker website
Drawing by © Carl Luer
LATE 
Common Name The Southern Barbosella
Flower Size 2" [5 cm]
Found in Rio de Janiero, Sao Paulo, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul states of southern Brazil at elevations around 1500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, long-repent epiphyte with a creeping, branching rhizome giving rise to ascending, cylindrical ramicauls enveloped by sheaths and carrying a single, apical, suberect, elliptic-oblong, often suffused with purple, acute, conduplicate below into the sessile base leaf blooms in the summer on an erect, .6 to 1.4" [1.5 to 3.5 cm] long, terete, slender, single flowered inflorescence with a thin, oblique floral bract enveloping the pedicel and part of the ovary. It holds the single flower well above the leaves.
"Recognized by the creeping habit and conspicuous, membraneous flowers larger than most of the suberect, elliptical leaves. The flowers are characterized by the oblong lip, broadly forked at the apex and a pair of pyramidial calli on the disc in front of the basal cavity." Luer 2000
Synonyms Barbosella australis var. genuina Hoehne 1947; Barbosella australis var. latipetala Hoehne 1947; Barbosella australis var. loefgrenii (Cogn.) Hoehne 1947; Barbosella loefgrenii (Cogn.) Schltr. 1918; *Restrepia australis Cogn. 1906; Restrepia loefgrenii Cogn. 1906
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 7 385 - 448 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing fide; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Miniature Orchids Northern 1988; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchds Pridgeon 1992; Orchidaceae Brasilienses Vol 2 Pabst - Dungs 1977; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XX Systematics of Jostia, Andinia, Barbosella, Barbrodia & Pleurothallis subgen Antilla, Effusia and Restrepioidia Luer 2000 drawing fide; Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species Parsons & Gerritsen 2013 photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
