Cleistes tenuis (Rchb.f.) Schltr. 1926 C aphylla group
Plant and Flower in situ French Guiana
Photos by © The Orchidees de Guyane Website
Common Name The Thin Cleistes
Flower Size 2" [5 cm]
Found in Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, Fr Guiana and northern Brazil at elevations around 120 to 130 meters as a medium sized, hot growing terrestrial with an erect, hollow, glabrous stem carrying 2 to 3 small, suberect, lightly nerved, light green, acute basally clasping leaves that blooms in the winter on both terminal and axillary, single flowered inflorescence with the lowest flower opening first and then successively up the stem to the apex.
CAUTION To me the second paler flower fits the descriptions better than the first flower, but the first flower has the "V" shape mid callus that Dunsterville describes but the colors in his description fit the second flower better.
Synonyms Cleistes paludosa Benth. ex Griseb. 1864; *Pogonia tenuis Rchb.f. 1865
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora Brasilica Vol VII 1 1-12 Hoehne 1940; Flora de Venezuela Vol XV Primera parte Foldats 1969 as Pogonia tenuis drawing good; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 5 Dunsterville and Garay 1972 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Brasiliensis Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing ok; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 photo hmm seems to be color form of C rosea;
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