Brachionidium hirtzii Luer 1986
Photo by © Karsten Thomsen and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Drawing by © Luer and The Epidendra Orchid Website
Common Name Hirtz' Brachionidium [Ecuadorian Orchid Collector current]
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in southern Ecuador in cloud forests in moss and humus as a terrestrial or climbing in trees at elevations of 2700 to 3000 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing terrestrial or epiphyte with to 1" between each ramicaul enveloped by 3 thin, loosely fitting, mucronate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, broadly elliptical to suborbicular, subacute to obtuse, 7 to 15 veined, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on a suberect, arising from near the apex of the ramicaul with a bract near the middle and another at the base, .68 to .92" [1.7 to 2.3 cm] long, solitary flowered inflorescence and has an inflated, mucronate, longer than the ovary floral bract and carries a non-resupinate flower.
"Most similar to Brachionidium phalangiferum but differs in the evenly bimarginate lip, which in B phalangiferum the upper margin overhangs the lower margin." Luer 1995
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1994 drawing/photo ok; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005;
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