Brachionidium uxorium Luer & R.Vásquez 1995
Photo by © Walter Teague /Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Orchid Website
Common Name or Meaning The Wife's Brachionidium [refers to Jane Luer wife of Carl Luer Pleurothallidinae experts current]
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in Cochabamba department of Bolivia at elevations around 2800 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing terrestrial in loose humus with a stout, erect, occasionally branching rhizome enveloped by 3, tubular, mucronate sheaths and giving rise to stout, suberect ramicauls enveloped by 2 mucronate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect to suberect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, 5 to 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 mucronate bract near the middle, .4 to .8" [1 to 2 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with an inflated, acute, mucronate, as long as the ovary floral bract and carrying a non-resupinate, prominently red striped, white flower.
"Vegetatively similar to Brachionidium tuberculatum but the color ofgthe flowers is unique in the genus white with pro minently red striped sepals and petals and a butterscotch-colored lip. The sepals are slightly acuminate, not caudate, the petals are acute and shortly caudate. The lip is transverse with acute, lateral angles." Luer 1995
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 drawing fide; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------