Brachionidium pepe-portillae Luer & Hirtz 2005

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Early

Common Name Pepe Portilla’s Brachionidium [Ecuadorian Orchid Nurseryman current]

Flower Size 1/2" [1.25 cm]

Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador at elevations around 1300 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, repent epiphyte with a slender, branching rhizome giving rise to a suberect ramicaul enveloped by 2 tubular, long apiculate sheaths carrying a single, suberect to prostrate, coriaceous, broadly elliptical to suborbicular, rounded apically with a long apiculum in the sinus, rounded and contracted below into the short petiolate base leaf that blooms in the early winter on an erect, slender, with a bract near the middle, .4 to .44” [1 to 1.1 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence and an infundibular, long-apiculate floral bract that enveloped both the pedicel and ovary.

"Characterized by a long, creeping, branching rhizome that bears broadly elliptical, long-apiculate leaves. Sheaths of the rhizome, peduncle and the floral bract are similarily long-apiculate. Thesepals and petals are ovate and long-acuminate. The lip is triangular with a thick, ovoid callus filling the concave disc." Luer 2004

Synonyms Brachionidium portillae Luer 2004

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Pleurothallis subgenus Acianthera and Three Allied subgenera, A Second Century of new Species of Stelis of Ecuador, Epibator, Ophidion and Zootrophion Luer 2004 as B portillae no nom illegal = B pepe-portillae drawing fide; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Dryadella and Acronia section Macrophyllae-Fasiculatae Luer 2005 in Corrigenda; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005 drawing fide;

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