Brachionidium folsomii Dressler 1982
Photos by © Ron Griesbeck courtesy of Yoshi Nomura
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name Folsom's Brachionidium [American Orchid Enthusiast and discoverer of species current]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama at elevations of 450 to 1800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with a sometimes branching stem carrying erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 similar, imbricate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, suberect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute, apiculate, gradually narrowing below into the cuneate, short, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter on an erect, arising from near the apex of the ramicaul with a bract near the base and another in the middle, .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with an infundibular, mucromate, just shorter to as long as the ovary floral bract and carrying a non resupinate flower.
"Distinguished by the small, erect, leafy plant on trees or on the ground in humus, disturbed soil of road cuts. The proportionally large, slender tailed flowers are held above the little foliage. Te sepals and petals are minutely ciliate. The margins of the transversely ovate lip are minutely erose or denticulate and another row of minute teeth or tubercules can usually be seen below the margin." Luer 1995
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; * Orquideologia Vol 15 #2-3 Luer 1982 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide; Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 photo fide; Manual De Plantas de Costa Rica Volumen III Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo fide; A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species Parsons & Gerritsen 2013 photos fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018;
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