!Cryptarrhena lunata R.Br. 1816
Photo by © Robert Takase.
Drawing by Sydenham Edwards
to
Common Name or Meaning The Moon-Shaped Cryptarrhena
Flower Size .16" [4mm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago as well as from Colombia to Peru at elevations of 30 to 1000 meters in shaded, very humid forests as a small to medium sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte without pseudobulbs [a definitive sign of this species vs the others in the genus] and having imbricate leaf-sheaths and articulate, linear-lanceolate leaves and blooms in the fall on an axillary, 10 to 11" [25 to 27.5 cm] long, pendant, many flowered inflorescence.
Synonyms Clinhymenia pallidiflora A. Rich. & Galeotti 1844, nom. inval.; Cryptarrhena pallidiflora (A.Rich. & Galeotti) Rchb.f. 1852; Orchidofunckia pallidiflora A.Rich. & Galeotti 1845
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *Bot. Reg. 2: t. 153. 1816; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as C pallidiflora; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing fide; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922 as C pallidiflora; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 drawing ok; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1965 drawing not = C kegelii; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 5 1970 not = C kegelii; Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 2 Pabst & Dungs 1977 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing not = C kegelii; Orquídea (Mexico City). 7(4): 1980 drawing/photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1008 Dodson 1984 drawing fide; AOS BulletinVol 55 NO 6 1986 as Kegeliella houteana drawing ok; The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 photo ok; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 25 1520 - 1584 Brieger 1991 drawing/photo fide; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Launert 1992 photo fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 photo fide; Manual de OPlantas de Costa Rica Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo fide; 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
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