Brassia warzcewiczii Rchb. f. 1852
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
to EARLY 
Common Name Warczewicz's Brassia [polish orchid collector in South America 1800's]
Flower Size 3/4" [1.8 cm]
Found as a medium to large sized, hot growing epiphyte only in Ecuador below 250 meters in elevation in wet montane forests on large trees with a woody rhizome carrying cylindrical, lightly compressed pseudobulbs subtended by several pairs of scarious bracts and carrying 2 apical, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, acute, the mid-vein carinate, attenuate to the shortly petiolate conduplicate base leaves that blooms in the fall and early winter in the northern hemisphere on a basal, 13" [32.5 cm] long, several to many [15 to 40] flowered inflorescence arising on a mature pseudobulb, with 5 to 6 distant bracts, decreasing in size from the basal sheath carrying fragrant flowers reminiscent of pepper with vanilla.
Synonyms Brassia helenae Rchb. f. ex Linden 1881; Oncidium helenae Rchb. f. 1861;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 1 1970 photo; Orchids from The Coast Of Ecuador Arosemana, Jurado, Estrada and Konanz 1988 photo ok; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum plate 610 Bennet & Christenson 1995 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 012 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Dodson Vol 1 1993 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 33 - 36 2057 - 2308 Brieger 1997; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 44-45 pg 2763 - 2898 Brieger 2001; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 #11 2007 photo fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orquideas del Peru Freuler 2010 photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------