Brachionidium ecuadorense Garay 1956

Drawing by © Dalstroem

Common Name or Meaning The Ecuadorian Brachionidium

Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]

Found in Morona-Santiago and Carchi provinces of Ecuador and pasco department of Peru in cloud forests at elevations around 2800 to 3400 meters as a small sized, cold growing terrestrial or lithophyte on wet rocks with a slender, occasionally branching rhizome enveloped by 2 to 3, close, acuminate sheaths and giving rise to suberect ramicauls enveloped by 2, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect to suberect, coriaceous, 7 veined, narrowly elliptical, acute, apiculate, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a slender, erect, .6 to 1" [1.5 to 2.5 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising from near the apex of the ramicaul, with a bract near the middle and an infundibular, mucronate, as long as the ovary floral bract.

" The slender rhizome grows more or less erect, producing at intervals a small, narrowly elliptical leaf. The middle sepal and synsepal are nearly identical, ovate and slightly acuminate, the petals are very similar and variously ciliate, from microscopic to nearly coarse, the lip is transversely triangular with a thick, convex, bimarginate edge. The callus is microscopically pubescent." Luer 1995

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 1994 Dodson drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005; Arnaldoa 12: 56. Beccara 2005 ; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 12 2007; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide

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