Brachionidium muscosum Luer & R.Vásquez 1984
Photo by © Modesto Zarate B. and The Parque Nacional Carrasco, Cochabamba Bolivia, Orquideas del Proyecto Hidroelectrico Ivirizu Website
Drawing by © Carl Luer
EARLY
Common Name or Meaning The Mossy Brachionidium [Refers to the habitat and the appearance of the miniature plant]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Cochabamba department of central Bolivia on the northern slopes of the Andes in moss mats at the shaded bases of trees in cloud forests at elevations of 1850 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphtye with a relatively slender, occasionally branching rhizome enveloped by 3, imbricating sheaths and giving rise to suberect ramicauls enveloped by 2 narrowly mucronate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, suberect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, apiculate, 3 veined, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the early summer on a slender, erect, arising from near the apex of the ramicaul with a bract below the middle and another at the base, .48 to .56" [1.2 to 1.4 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence and an infundibular, mucronate, as long as the ovary floral bract and carrying a non-resupinate, light brown flower.
"This tiny species grows intertwined in loose mats of moss around shaded bases of trees in moist cloud forests. The fragile little flowers are colorless and nearly transparent. Luer 1984
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytologia 55: 176. Luer & Vasquez 1984; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing fide; Arnaldoa 12: 56. Beccara 2005 ; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 12 2007; The Parque Nacional Carrasco, Cochabamba Bolivia, Orquideas del Proyecto Hidroelectrico Ivirizu Website 2021 Photo fide
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