Brachionidium imperiale Luer & Escobar ex Harling & Andersson 2005
Flowers and plants in situ Ecuador
Photos by © Andreas Kay and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Flower in situ Parque Nacional Tatama' Choco department of Colombia 1900 meters 8/17
Plant and flower in situ Parque Nacional Tatama' Choco department of Colombia 2000 meters 8/17
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
TYPEDrawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Orchid Website
Common Name or Meaning The Imperial Brachionidium [refers to the regal size of the flower]
Flower Size 6" [15 cm]
Found in Valle de Cauca and Risaralda departments of west central Colombia and Pataza province of Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations around 2000 to 2600 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing terrestrial on roadbanks or occasional epiphyte in shrubs with a ascending to erect rhizome enveloped by 2 to 3 distant, mucronate, tubular sheaths and giving rise to suberect ramicauls enveloped by 2, similar, imbricating tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, multiveined, contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on a slender, erect, arising from near the apex of the ramicaul with a bract below the middle and another at the base, 1.6 to 2.6" [4 to 6.5 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with an inflated, mucronate, shorter than the ovary floral bract and carrying a non-resupinate flower.
"Similar to Brachionidium parvifolium but differs in the much longer leaves, and the multiveined sepals and petals with filamntous tails 2 to 3 times longer." Luer 1995
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; A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species Parsons & Gerritsen 2013 photos fide; The Orchid Review Vol 127 No 1328 December 2019 photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide
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