Constantia microscopica F.E.L.Miranda 1991
Photo by © Gilberto Khouri and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photo by © Tom 19951 and RV Orchid Talk Website
Photos by © Adriano Tome'
Common Name or Meaning The Microscopic Constantia
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Minas Gerais state of Brazil on large blocks of rock near Diamantina as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing lithophyte on vertical rock faces in deep shade with purple flushed, rounded but skewed off center pseudobulbs carrying 2 to rarely 3, apical, leathery, densely tuberculated, elliptic, convex, with a prominent midrib, distinct verrucosities above and rugosities beneath leaves that blooms in the fall on an erect, 1" [2.5 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence
One of the smallest orchids of the New World, certainly the smallest in the genus and even the smallest within the Laeliinae.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Albertoa 3(10): 99 F.E.L.Miranda 1991
Cattleyas and Their Relatives Vol 3 Withner 1990 photo fide;
Icones Orchidacearum Brasilienses II Plate 103 Castro 2006 drawing ok/photo fide;
Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001;
A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species Vol 1 Parsons & Gerritsen 2013 photo fide
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