Elleanthus albertii Schltr.1923 SUBGENUS Hymenophora
Photo by © Franco Pupulin and The Epidendra Webpage
Drawing by © Oledrzynska 2023
Common Name Albert's Elleanthus [Alberto Brennes Costa Rican botanist earlier 1900's]
Flower Size
Found in Nicaragua and Costa Rica in wet montane forests at elevations around 1050 meters as a small sized, warm to cool growing terrestrial with a suberect, terete, glabrous stem leafy in the upper part with 3 to 4, plicate, stiff, elliptic, elliptic-ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, tridentate apically leaves that blooms in the summer on a terminal, spike-like, densely many flowered inflorescnece with ovate, acute, rigid, twice as long as the ovary floral bracts
E albertii is often cited as a synonym of E hymenophorus but differs in the lip details with the margins lacerate-dentate vs deniculate-erose, the lip calli are approximate vs well sparated and the keels of the lateral sepals are serrate-papillate vs glabrous. The sepals are not fufuraceous and the lip callii are approximate and the obvious, green, acute floral bracts are longer than the flowers while E hymenophorus does not.
Don't know if it is enough to separate to species level but both Schlechter, Pupulin, Szlatchetko & Kolanowska think so. I have left them separate awaiting more information,
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI
Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ;
*Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 19: 162. Schlechter 1923; Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 669 Hamer 1982 drawing hmm; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Pupulin 2005 photo fide; Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:228 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 drawing fide
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