Encyclia brevifolia (Jenn.) Ackerman & Muj.Benitez 2012

photo by © Claude Hamilton

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Short-Leaved Encyclia

Flower Size 1.6" [4 cm]

Found in western Cuba in open pine savannahs at elevations near sea level as a small to medium sized, hot growing epiphyte with pyriform to cylindrical-ovoid pseudobulbs enveloped by scarious sheaths and carrying 1 to 3, apical, coriaceous, rigid, linear to ellliptic-lanceolate, acute to obtuse, conduplicate below into the base leaves that blooms in the late spring through early fall on a terminal, erect, smooth, racemose, peduncle 6 to 16" [15 to 40 cm] long, 3 to 6 bracted, rachis smooth to verrucose, 1.6 to 7.2" [4 to 18 cm] long, 2 to 9 flowered inflorescence with broadly ovate floral bracts and carrying vanilla or chocolate scented flowers.

Often cited as a synonym of E pyriformis but this species is most similar to E phoenicea but this one has much shorter leaves and fewer flowers as well as consistently being found on a different host, within the leaf bases of Acoelorrhaphe wrightii

Synonyms *Epidendrum brevifolium Jenn. 1917

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

Annuaire Conserv. Jard. Bot. Genève 11: 103 Jenn. 1917 as Epidendrum brevifolia;

The Cattleya and Their Relatives Vol IV Withner 1996 as a synonym of E pyriformis;

The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 as E sp pg 259 photo fide;

Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 98: 631 Ackerman & Múj.Benítez 2012

Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------