Cyclopogon soniae-juaniorum Zambrano 2018

Photo by © Javier Zambrano Romero

Full Shade Warm Cool Winter Spring

Common Name Sonia and Juans' Cyclopogon [Sonia Romero, Juan Zambrano and Juan Pablo Zambrano, parents and brother of the first author, who have contributed substantially to our research on Orchidaceae of Ecuador current]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in El Oro province of Ecuador in evergreen premontane forest and semi-deciduous forests at elevations around 785 to 1200 meters as a small to medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with 1 to 8, in a basal rosette, dull green, elliptic-lanceolate to obliquely elliptic, acute, conduplicate below into the petiolate base leaves that blooms in the winter through spring on a terminal, erect, peduncle green, glabrous on the proximal 2/3, pilose above, partially enclosed by 4 to 7 loose, lanceolate, long-acuminate, pale green, translucent bracts, up to 23.2" [58 cm] long, simultaneously 5 to 30, to 100 flowered inflorescence with pale green, translucent, conspicuously longer than the ovaries, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, concave floral bracts and carrying resupinate, ascending flowers.

"Cyclopogon soniae-juaniorum is the unique among Cyclopogon species due to its tiny basal calli, but it is similar to species such as C. argyrotaenius, C. ellipticus, C. epiphyticus, C. gracilis and C. hennisianus. The most similar species is the Ecuadorian and Colombian C. hennisianus, but it is different in its terrestrial habit (vs. epiphytic), variegated leaves (vs. dull-green), oblong dorsal sepal (vs. lanceolate), acute lateral sepals (vs. obtuse), shorter and oblong-obovate petals (?.22" vs .26" [5.5 mm vs. 6.5 mm], linear-oblong) and a sagittate-subquadrate lip with small conical calli (vs. oblong-pandurate, with tiny, translucent and rounded)" Zambrano & Solano 2018

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Phytotaxa 376 (5) Zambrano & Solano 2018 drawing/photo fide

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