Elleanthus scopula Schltr. 1912 SUBGENUS Stachydelyna SECTION Magnicallosae Szach. & Dudek 2023

Drawing by © Calaway Dodson

LATE EARLY LATE EARLY

Common Name The Small Twig Elleanthus

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Costa Rica, Santander, Cauca and Nariño departments of Colombia, Carchi province of Ecuador, Peru and La Paz department of Bolivia at elevations of 2500 to 3500 meters as a large sized, cold growing terrestrial with a much branched, very variable in length, slender, at first vaginate, then leaf above stems carrying erect spreading, lanceolate, acuminate, subcoriaceous, 3 veined beneath leaves that blooms in the late fall and early winter and late spring and early summer on a terminal, capitate in youth, becoming subglobose with age, rather densely many flowered inflorescence withlancecoalte, acuminate, navicular, decreasing in size upwards, longer than the flowers floral bracts and carrying purple flowers with a rather fleshy lip.

This species differs from others in the apically branching stem, the very narrow, coriaceous, 3 nerved leaves, the purple flowers, the lip with a large bilobed, plate like thickening in front of the basal cavity, and the large corpuscles that are separate and fully exposed.

"Similar to E magnicallosus but differs in the 2.5 to 3 times longer than wide sepals versus twice longer than wide , long as wide lip versus a longer than wide lip , and the lip margins finely denticulate vs coarsely denticulate." Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023

Synonyms Elleanthus bambusaceus Schltr. 1921

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 10: 34 Schlechter Bolivia 1922;

Flora Brasilica Vol XII II 13-43 Hoehne 1945 as E bambusaceus;

Flora Brasilica Vol XII II 13-43 Hoehne 1945; Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Orchidaceae Garay 1978;

Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 photo not = E sp white flower/drawing fide;

Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004;

Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010 drawing good;

Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:306 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 drawing fide

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