Barkeria palmeri [Rolfe]Schlechter 1918

Inflorescence Photo by © Jay Pfahl

to MID

Common Name Palmer's Barkeria [English Orchid Enthusiast 1800's]

Flower Size about 3/4" [2 to 3 cm]

From mid-western, Pacific coastal Mexico at elevations of sealevel to 1300 meters as a hot to cool growing epiphyte is found in tropical deciduous or semi-deciduous forests species and needs to be mounted on a small branch of wood and have fusiform, slender pseudobulbs that are enclosed by scarious sheaths and having reddish green, deciduous, coriaceous, fleshy, narrowly lanceolate leaves that will bloom in the mid-winter on an apical, simple or branched, 12" [30 cm] long, several to many [2-100] flowered inflorescence.

This orchid is deciduous and loses it's leaves in the fall before the mid winter blooming. Best to mount this species on wood sticks and give plenty of bright light, water and fertilizer while growing. As the leaves yellow and fall off in the mid to late fall it is time to slow watering and stop fertilizing, with-holding until the new growth appears in the early spring after blooming.

Synonyms Barkeria chinensis ssp. palmeri [Rolfe] Thein 1970; Broughtonia cubensis [Lindley] Lindley ex Cogn. 1910; *Epidendrum palmeri Rolfe 1893; Laeliopsis cubensis {Lindley] Lindley ex Cogn. 1910

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977; Orchid Digest Vol 44 No 2 1980 photo fide; Flora Novo-Galaciana Vol 16 Orchidaceae McVaugh 1985; Minature Orchids Northen 1980; Icones Orchidacearum I Plate 3 Soto Arenas 1990 drawing ok; Miniature Orchids McQueen 1992; Orchid Digest Vol 57 No 4 1993 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 59 No 4 1995; Cattleya and Their Relatives Vol 5 Withner 1998 drawing/photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 69 No 6 2004/5 photo; Orchids of Mexico, Hagsater, Soto, Salazar etal 2005 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #9 2017 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 87 #1 2018 photo fide;

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