Eria bractescens Lindley 1841 SECTION Hymenaria

Flower Closeup

Photos by Dr. E.F. de Vogel, courtesy of André Schuiteman, and Jaap Vermeulen and Their Netherlands National Herbarium Website. and Flora Malesiana Vol III

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Common Name The Bracteate Eria

Flower Size to about 1/2" [to about 1.4 cm]

Found in Assam, Bangladesh, eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Andaman Islands, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Moluccas, Sulawesi and the Philippines in lowland forests at elevations of 20 to 1800 meters as a small to medium sized, hot to cool growing, epiphytic species occuring on the upper branches and forks of tall trees with very stout, erect, egg shaped to subcylindrical, swollen, fleshy, 2 to 3 noded below the leaves, green aging to green/red brown with white longitudinal striped pseudobulbs enveloped basally by a few scarious sheaths and carrying 2 [rarely 3] apical, elliptical to oblong, green, thick, leathery, obtuse to rounded and unequally bilobed apically, gradually narrowing below into the narrowly clasping base leaves that blooms in the summer on a short to 6" [to 15 cm], axillary, suberect to spreading, purple to brown pubescent, bracteate, racemose, creamy white inflorescence arising from near the apex of the mature pseudobulb with a basal, triangular bract and 5 to 7 oblong, white, hairless bracts below the flowers and a reflexed, concave, oblong-elliptic, apiculate, hairless floral bract and carrying the the many [to 15] fragrant flowers all crowded onto the apical half.

Often cited as Eria spicata, major difference, E bractescens has 2 leaves at the apex of the pseudobulb, larger more open acute flowers with no fragrance while E spicata has 4 near the apex, sheathed leaves and smaller, cupped flowers with fragrance.

Synonyms Dendrobium subterrestre Gagnep. 1930; Eria bractescens var. kurzii Hook.f. 1890; Eria bractescens var. latipetala Leav. 1909; Eria dillwynia Hkr. 1845; Eria griffithii Rchb.f. 1870; Eria kurzii Anderson ex Hook.f. 1890; Eria litoralis Teijsm. & Binn 1862; Eria pulchella Griff. 1851; Pinalia bractescens [Lindl.] O.Ktze. 1891; Pinalia pulchella Kuntze 1891; Trias bractescens (Lindl.) Mason 1860; Trias pulchella Mason 1860; Tropilis subterrestris (Gagnep.) Rauschert 1983

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/1995; Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/1995 as E griffithii; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 drawing hmm shows bilobed lip; Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 2 Ames 1908; Flora of the Malayan Penninsula Ridley 1908; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as E dillwynii; Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 5 Ames 1915; Flora of Malaya Vol 1 Holttum 1953 drawing good; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 5 1958 drawing fide; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1960 as Dendrobium subterrestre; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1960 drawing fide; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1965 corrections; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Contribution to a Revision of the Orchid Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam Seidenfaden 1975; The Orchids of Papua New Guinea An Introduction Millar 1978 photo ok; Indian Orchids: A Guide to Identification Vol 2 Pradhan 1979; Opera Botanica #62 Orchid Genera in Thailand X Seidenfaden 1982 drawing ok; The Complete Writings on Philippine Orchids Vol 1 Quisumbing 1981; Orchidiana Philipiniana Vol 1 Valmayor 1984; The Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia and Singapore Wood & Seidenfaden 1992 drawing fide; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; Identification of the Orchids [Orchidaceae Juss.] Vietnam Averyanov 1994; Lowland Orchids of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Byrne 1994 drawing/photo fide;Living with Orchids in Sumatra Landau 1996 photo fide; Orchids of Sarawak Beaman & Wood 2001 photo fide; Orchids of Sumatra Comber 2001 photo fide; Orchids of the Philippines Cootes 2001 photo fide; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Botanica's Orchids Lauren Glen 2002 photo good; Orchid Flora Of Kamrup District Assam Iswar Chandra Barua 2001; Lindleyana Vol 17 No 1 2002; Flora Malesiana Orchids of the Philippines Vol I Agoo, Shuiteman and de Vogel 2003; A field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2005 photo fide; Flora Malesiana Orchids of New Guinea Vol III Shuiteman and de Vogel 2006; The Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 drawing ok; Native Philippine Orchid Species Cootes 2011 as Pinalia bractescens photo fide; Wild Orchids of Myanmar Taunggyi 2014 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #5 2017 photo fide;

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