Brachtia andina Rchb.f. 1856
Photos courtesy of Andy's Orchids Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved
Photo by Alexander Hirtz
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Common Name The Andean Brachtia
Flower Size 1/2" [1.25 cm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as a small sized, cool to cold growing, miniature epiphyte found in temperate cloud forests at altitudes of 1200 to 2800 meters with a creeping rhizome with ancipitous, narrowly oblong ovate pseudobulbs subtended and enveloped by several, imbricating, leaf-bearing sheaths above and scarious bracts below that carry a single, apical, narrowly oblong-elliptic, obtuse leaf that basally is contracted into a petiole and blooms in situ in Ecuador in the winter and early spring on a basal from the leaf axils, erect, 8" [20 cm] long raceme, equaling the length of the leaf and arising on a mature pseudobulb, with glumaceous, inflated floral sheaths and many long-lasting, fleshy flowers that droop and are two ranked along the inflorescence.
Best mounted on tree fern and hung in a well shaded, humid enviroment similar to the cool growing Masdevallia.
Synonyms Brachtia verruculifera Schlechter 1920; Brassia andina (Rchb.f.) M.W.Chase 2011
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 Brachtia verruculifera; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 Genus only; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 404 Dodson 1982 drawing close hmm; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Native Colombia Orchids vol 1 COS 1991 photo good; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Laurent 1992 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 drawing/photo fide; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 37/38 pg 2309 - 2436 Brieger 1999 photo fide; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005; The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2005; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchids of Tropical America an introduction and guide Meisel 2014 photo fide; as Brassia andina; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide
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