!Comparettia falcata Poepp. & Endl. 1836
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Plant and Flowers in situ Navarco Quindio Colombia elevations 1500 meters 5/08
Plant with seed pods in situ, Popayan Colombia 6/07
Photos by Jay Pfahl ©
to 
Common Name The Sickle-Shaped Comparettia
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, French Guiana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil as a small sized, caespitose, warm to cool growing epiphyte or occasional lithophyte from shrubs and low tree trunks or on small branches in guava trees in wet montane forests occuring at altitudes of 200 to 3000 meters with an oblong-cylindric, lightly compressed pseudobulb with an elliptic, oblong-lanceolate single leaf that blooms in the fall through winter on a newly matured pseudobulb and has a delicate, basal, erect then arcuate, 12" or longer [30 + cm], sometimes irregularly branched, racemose inflorescence with up to 8 flowers that are held well above the leaves.
Synonyms Comparettia cryptocera Morren 1852; Comparettia erecta Schltr. 1920; Comparettia falcata f. alba Pupulin 2005; Comparettia falcata var. paulensis (Cogn.) I.Bock 1986; Comparettia paulensis Cogn. 1906; Comparettia rosea Lindl. 1840; Comparettia venezuelana Schltr. 1919; Ionopsis orchioides Kraenzl. 1921; Orchis pauciflora Sessé & Moç. 1894
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1853; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1855; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1878; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 Drawing fide; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten I Venezuela Schlechter 1919 as C venezuelana; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing ok; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 as C erecta; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 as C pulchella; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing good; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 143. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as C rosea; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 248. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as C rosea; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; AOS Bulletin Vol 26 No 2 1957; AOS Bulletin Vol 4 1958 drawing fide; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 29 No 10 1960 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 5 1961; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 35 No 5 1966; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 # 9 1967; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969; Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Part 5 Foldats 1970 drawing fide; Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Part 5 Foldats 1970 as C venezuelana; Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 2 Pabst & Dungs 1977 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 42 No 5 1978 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 5 1979; Orquídea (Mexico City), n.s., 7[3]: 1979; Orchids of Venezuela ; An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 027 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 51 No 12 1982 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 639 Dodson 1982 drawing fide; Orquideologia Vol 16 No 1 1983; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1983; Orchids from The Coast Of Ecuador Arosemana, Jurado, Estrada and Konanz 1988 photo fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchid Vol 1 COS 1990 photo fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 61 No 10 1992 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1416 Atwood 1992 drawing fide; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Launert 1992 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum plate 020 Bennett & Christenson 1993 drawing fide; An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 31 1905 - 1976 Brieger 1995 Ionopssis orchioides; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 31 1905 - 1976 Brieger 1995 drawing fide; Venezuela; Paraiso de Orquideas Romero 1997 photo fide; Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 63 #4 1999 photo fide; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1999 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; Icones Orchidacearum 5 & 6 Orchids Of Mexico Parts 2 & 3 Plate 542 Hagsater, Soto 2002; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003 drawing fide; The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2005; The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo fide; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; Orquideas de la Republica Dominicana Y Haiti Fernandez 2007 photo fide; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 75 #1 2011 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 75 #4 2011 Photo fide; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo fide; An Illustrated Field Guide to the Orchids of the Yotoco Forest Reserve Colombia Kolanowska, Escobar, Sanchez & Szlachetko 2011 drawing/photo fide; Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 photo fide; Lankesteriana 19(1) 31-55 2019 photo fide; LANKESTERIANA 19(2).125 - 193 Ossenbach & Jenny 2019 as C venezuelana drawing fide; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
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