Elleanthus virgatus (Rchb.f.) C.Schweinf. 1938 SUBGENUS Elleanthus
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
Original Drawing by © Padre Pedro Ortiz Conserved at the Herbario de la Universidad Javeriana, Bogota Colombia
Common Name The Spotted Elleanthus
Flower Size
Found in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Cundinamarca, Caldas, Cauca and Huila departments of Colombia, Carchi, Morona-Santiago and Pastaza provinces of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia at elevations of 1000 to 3000 meters as a medium to just large sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial and occasional epiphyte with an erect, branching and rooting stem carrying a few towards the apex, plicate, lanceolate, acute to acuminate, 3 denticulate apically, gradually narrowing below into the cuneate, clasping base leaves that blooms at most any time of the year on a terminal, rachis fractiflex, glabrous, nutant, 3.2" [8 cm] long, few flowered inflorescence with glumaceous-cymbiform, acute floral bracts that are as long or longer than the ovary and the flower.
Simiar to E lancifolius but differs in the much shorter floral bracts (.68 to to .8" [1.7 to 2 cm]) versus in E lancifolius (1.8" [4.5 cm] long. E virgatus also has the bsal part of the lip is strongly involute into a tube difficult to spread."Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023
Synonyms Pseudelleanthus virgatus (Rchb.f.) Brieger 1983; *Sertifera virgata Rchb.f. 1876; Sobralia micrantha Kraenzl. 1920
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI
Linnaea 41: 64 Rchb.f 1876 as Sertifera virgata;
Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Sertifera virgata;
Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 7: 448 Kraenzl. 1920 as Sobralia macrantha;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 6: 112 C Schweinfurth 1938;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958;
Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing ok;
Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Garay 1978 drawing ok;
Die Orchideen lieferung #13: 794 Bulbophyllinae Brieger 1983 as Pseudoelleanthus virgatus drawing ok;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 as V vernicosa photo fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 eDrawing fide;
Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010 drawing fide;
Orchids of the Department of Valle de Cauca Colombia Vol 1 Kolanowska & Szlachetko 2012 drawing/photo fide;
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:212 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 drawing fide
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