Habenaria diffusa A.Rich. & Galeotti 1845
Photos by © E. W. Greenwood and Las Orquideas del Occidente de Mexico Vol 1: 103 Jorge Roberto González Tamayo y Lizbeth Hernández Hernández 2010
Drawing of Habenaria umbratilis
Drawing by © Fritz Hamer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Extended Habenaria [refers to it's height of growth]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Baja California, Chihuahua, Chiapas, Colima, D.F., Guerrero, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Morelia, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí y Veracruz states of Mexico and Guatemala in in low-lying tree hollows, in subdeciduous tropical forest, or at the foot of small shrubs on hillsides in open holm oak forests, often in ravines, occasionally on stone fences in pine forest and Encino, at elevations around 1200 to 2000 meters as a medium to large sized, cool growing terrestrial, lithophyte, or rarely epiphyte with an erect stem carrying well spaced, narrowly ovate, acute, and grading smaller above into the bracts that blooms in the winter on a terminal, erect, racemose, densely many flowered inflorescence with ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
"Habenaria diffusa is characterized by the slender bearing of the plant, with larger leaves located above the middle; cylindrical, lax cluster; floral bract shorter than the ovary; extended ovaries, up to 1.08" [27 mm] long, far exceed the size of flowers; subpatent dorsal sepal, suborbicular; lateral sepals almost opposite, extended; anterior lobe of the petals .26" [6.5 mm] long, larger than the posterior segment, uncurved when extended; Lobes .5" [12.5 mm] long labellum sides, longer that the middle lobe, well diversified, the distal part ascending; spine underextended, dorsum dilated towards the base; Much shorter anther channels that the subsquare, rounded subtruncating locules and stigmatic processes, devoid of a rim." Jorge Roberto González Tamayo y Lizbeth Hernández Hernández 2010
Synonyms Habenaria umbratilis Ames & L.O.Williams 1941
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 3, 3: 28 A Rich & Galeotti 1845
Fl. Mexic., ed. 2: 199 Sesse & Moc. 1894 as Orchis imbicata nom. illeg.
Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 4 Ames 1910
Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 4 Ames 1910 drawing good;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 10: 59 Ames & L.O.Williams 1941 as H umbratilis
Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 772 Hamer 1982 as H umbratilis drawing fide;
Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 as H umbratilis drawing fide;
Las Orquideas del Occidente de Mexico Vol 1: 103 Jorge Roberto González Tamayo y Lizbeth Hernández Hernández 2010 drawing fide;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
