Brachionidium fornicatum Luer & Hirtz 1995
Photo by © Arend De Wilde in situ Colombia
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Orchid Website
LATE 
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Common Name or Meaning The Vaulted Brachionidium [refers to the concave sepaline tube]
Flower Size 2.4" [6 cm]
Found in Nariño department of southern Colombia and Carchi province of northern Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations around 3000 to 3300 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with a stout, branching rhizome enveloped by 2 to 3, distant, smooth tubular sheaths and giving rise to suberect ramicauls enveloped by 2, imbricating, mucronate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, multi-veined, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late fall through winter on a slender, erect, arising from near the apex of the ramicaul, with a bract near the middle and another at the base, 1 to 1.6" [2.5 to 4 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with an inflated, acute, as long as to longer than the ovary floral bract.
"A free standing species, occuring singly or in bush like colonies 40" [1 meter] across. The branching rhizomes produce a short ramicaul with an elliptical leaf about 1.2 to 2" [3 t o5 cm] apart. The uppermost synsepal is concave with 2 short, erect tails. The middle sepal is flat and decurving overlain at the base of the decurving petals. The transverse lip is similar to that of Brachionidium parvifolium but it is distinguished by a low pair of central calli from the marginal, longitudinal calli." Luer 1993
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005 drawing fide; Arnaldoa 12: 56. Beccara 2005 ; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing fide
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