Brachionidium lucanoideum Luer 1995

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Orchid Website

Common Name or Meaning The Stag Beetle Like Brachionidium [refers to the lip shape]

Flower Size 1.2" [2 cm]

Found in Chiriqui province of western Panama at elevations of 2200 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphtye or terrestrial with a relatively slender, erect to suberect, occasionally branching rhizome enveloped by 2 to 3, tubular, mucronate sheaths and giving rise to slender, suberect ramicauls enveloped by 2 tubular, mucronate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect to suberect, coriaceous, whitish beneath, elliptical, acute to subacute, 7 veined, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a slender, erect, arising from near the apex of the ramicaul with a bract near the middle, .8 to 1.12" [2 to 2.8 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence and an inflated, acute, mucronate, shorter than the ovary floral bract and carrying a non-resupinate flower.

"Similar to Brachionidium calypso , Brachionidium dressleri and Brachionidium satyreum but is distinguished by the unique subquadrate lip with elongateed antrorse lateral lobes that are fimbriate and apiculate and with a small, apiculate middle lobe. The rounded callus in the middle of the disc is pubescent." Luer 1995

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide;

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