Elleanthus wercklei Schltr. 1923 SUBGENUS Hymenophora

Photo by © Franco Pupulin and The Epidendra Webpage

Drawings

Drawings by © A Krol 2023

Common Name Werckle's Elleanthus [German Orchid Collector late 1800's - early 1900's]

Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]

Found in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama at elevations around 1400 to 3100 meters as a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with a flexuous, glabrous, erect stem carrying 5 to 7, erect-patent, subcoriaceous, glabrous, narrowly lanceolate, obtusely acuminate, long-cuneate into the base leaves that blooms in the spring on an erect, distichous, to .8" [2 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence with erect-patent, lanceolate, obtuse-acuminate, concave, scarious, as long as to longer than the flowers floral bracts.

Similar to E oliganthus in the denticulate-erose margins of the lip but are easily separated by the pink to purplish flowers vs reddish orange in E oliganthus, the position of the lip calli at the bottm of the cavity vs at the base of the cavity and the much smaller leaves 2.8" [7 cm] vs 8" [20 cm] long.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI

Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ;

*Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 19: 11. 1923;

Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 1015 Hamer 1984 drawing good;

Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing good;

Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993

Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;

Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Pupulin 2005 photo fide;

Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:220 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 drawing fide

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