Elleanthus robustus (Rchb. f.) Rchb. f. 1862 SUBGENUS Calelyna SECTION Calelyna Szach & Dudek 2023
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © Patricia Harding
Drawing by © Lee Megahee/Calaway Dodson
to 
Common Name The Robust Elleanthus
Flower Size 1/8” [.4 cm]
Found in Puntarenas province of Costa Rica, Colombia, Carchi and Pichincha provinces Ecuador and Huanuco department of Peru in wet montane forests on embankments at elevations of 1000 to 3100 meters as a giant sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with an erect, cane-like, simple, stout stem with many rather thin, size variable, lanceolate, long-acuminate, very large, plicate, acuminate, sessile leaves on rather loose fitting prominently ribbed, glabrous sheaths that blooms in the spring and summer on a very compact, cylindric, to 7 1/4" [18 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence that arises from 2 to 3 large, imbricating, erect sheaths with rather thin, spreading, oblong-lanceolate, acute, floral bracts that are shorter than the flowers.
"E robustus is part of a group of species, E strobilifer , E roseus, E bonplandii, and E aureus having glabrous flowers of a medium size. E robustus and E strobilifer are huge, robust plants often over 2 meters tall with very large leaves that reach12" [30 cm] long or more. In E robustus the lip lamina is minutely and densely papillate while E strolifer has a glabrous lamina." Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023
Synonyms *Evelyna robusta Rchb. f. 1852
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 10: 708 Rchb.f 1852 as Evelyna robustus;
*Ann. Bot. Syst. 6: 474 Rchb.f 1862; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 9: 45 Peru Schlechter 1921;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958;
Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Garay 1978 drawing ok;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 061 Dodson 1980 drawing ok;
Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing/photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 4 2006 photo fide;
Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide;
Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010 drawing fide;
Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide;
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:253 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 drawing fide
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