!Brachionidium parvifolium (Lindl.) Lindl. 1859
Photo by © Andrea Niessen
Original Drawing by © Padre Pedro Ortiz Conserved at the Herbario de la Universidad Javeriana, Bogota Colombia
Common Name The Small Leafed Brachionidium
Flower Size 2" [5 cm]
Found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil at elevations around 2400 to 2850 meters as a giant sized, cold growing terrestrial with a stem with 3 distant, smooth tubular sheaths and .8 to 3.6" [2 to 9 cm] between each erect to suberect, branching ramicaul with 2 imbricating, smooth tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, 11 to 13 veined, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on an erect, slender, from near the apex of the ramicaul, with a bract near the middle and anotehr at the base, 1.2 to 2.4" [3 to 6 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with inflated, mucronate, shorter than the pedicel floral bract carrying a non-resupinate large flower.
"Althought the latin name suggests "small leaves", B parvifolium can have some of the largest of the genus. The shiny purple flower are widely expanded with slender tails about as long as their respective blades. The middle sepal is 5 veined, occasionally with an accessory pair. The species has 8 pollina." Luer 1995
Synonyms *Restrepia parvifolia Lindl 1846
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 1994 Dodson drawing ok; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42-43 pg 2624 - 2756 Brieger 2001; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005 drawing ok; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 4 Epidendroideae Part 1 Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase and Rasmussen 2005 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide
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