Brachionidium andreettae Luer & Hirtz 1995
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Orchid Website
Common Name or Meaning Andreetta's Brachionidium [Ecuadorian Priest and Orchid Enthusiast current]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador in scrub cloud forests at elevations of 2250 to 2300 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with a stout, occasionally branching rhizome enveloped by 3, tubular sheaths, mucronate apically and giving rise to stout, suberect ramicauls enveloped by 2, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, suberect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, longitudinally 7 veined, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a slender, erect, .8" [2 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising from near the apex of the ramicaul, with a loose bract near the middle and another at the base and has an inflated, mucronate, as long as the pedicel and ovary floral bract and carrying a non-resupinate flower.
"Similar to Brachionidium ecuadorense but distinguished by the stouter rhizome and larger flowers. It is also related to Brachionidium parvifolium (Lindl.) Lindl. 1859 from which it is distinguished by the 3 veined middle sepal and the 4 veined synsepal, both of which are merely acuminate instead of caudate. The lip is not sharply bimarginate as it is in B ecuadorense and B parvifolium. All three have 8 pollina." Luer 1995
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 1994 Dodson drawing/photo fide; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005; Orchids of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide;
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