Brachionidium dentatum Luer & Dressler 1995
Photo by © Kresly Pineda and The Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Drawing by © Dalstroem and The Epidendra Orchid Website
Common Name or Meaning The Toothed Brachionidium [refers to the lip]
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in Chiriqui province of western Panama in cloud forests at elevations around 2800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte or terrestrial with a relatively stout, occasionally branching rhizome enveloped by 2 to 3, long mucronate, tubular sheaths and giving rise to stout, suberect ramicauls enveloped by 2, similar sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect to suberect, coriaceous, 7 veined, elliptical, acute, carinate, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a slender, erect, .8 to 1" [2 to 2.5 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising from near the apex of the ramicaul, with a mucronate bract near the middle and an inflated, acute, mucronate, as long as the ovary floral bract.
"Distinguished by the ereect habit with elliptical leaves with carinate veins, a character found in very few species. The flowers are comparitively small and dark purple. The sepals and petals are minutely ciliate and long-caudate. The unique lip is more or less cordate-ovate and bimarginate with2 toothed crests, one within the outer margin." Luer 1995
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide;
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