!Cischweinfia pusilla (C. Schweinf.) Dressler & N.H. Williams 1970
Photo by © Andy's Orchids. Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved.
Photo by Dale and Deni Borders
Common Name The Tiny Cischweinfia
Flower Size 3/4" to 1 1/2" [2 to 3.75 cm]
Found in Panama and Costa Rica in wet montane forests as a small sized, warm growing epiphyte that is found at elevations of 600 to 1000 meters with linear or ellipsoid, strongly laterally compressed, ancipitous pseudobulbs partially enveloped basally by several disitichous, imbricating, conduplicate, lower leafless and upper leaf-bearing sheaths and carrying a single, apical, linear to strap-shaped, slightly coriaceous, oblique, narrowing below into the conduplicate petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on an axillary, short to 2" [5 cm] long, 3 to 5 flowered inflorescence arising on a newly matured pseudobulb through the axils of the basal leaf sheath.
Clearly C pusilla is allied to C donrafae but it differs in the beaked anther, the relatively long stipe, the shape of the column and the raised veins on the lip.
Cischweinfia sheehaniae is now considered a synonym of C pusila but I have kept them separate awaiting beter references.
Synonyms *Aspasia pusilla C. Schweinf. 1941; Cischweinfia pusilla var. furcata Dressler & Dalström 2004; Trichopilia pusilla [Schweinfurth] Garay 1970
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; Bot. Mus. Leafl. 10: 21. 1941 as Aspasia pusila; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as Aspasia pusila drawing good; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958 as Aspasia pusilla; AOS Bulletin Vol 33 No 6 1964 as Aspasia pusilla photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 1 1970 photo; *AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 11 1970 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 7 1980 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 No 9 1995 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 32 1977 - 2056 Brieger 1996 drawing/photo fide; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1999 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 2 2003 drawing fide; Manual De Plantas de Costa Rica Volumen 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2005; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo good; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; AOS Bulletin Vol 81 #1 2012 photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #11 2016 photo ok;
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