!Helleriella nicaraguensis A.D.Hawkes 1966
Photo by © Gary Yong Gee and his Yongee Name Website
Photos by © Sune Holt in Nicaragua
Common Name The Nicaraguan Helleriella
Flower Size 1 1/4" [3 cm]
Found in Chiapas state of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua in evergreen cloud forests at elevations of 1200 to 2400 meters as a large sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte or occasional lithophyte with elongate, branching stems with adventitious roots completely enveloped by leaf sheaths and carrying in the apical half, distichous, articulated to the sheaths, elliptic, carinate, obtuse and emarginate leaves that blooms most often in the fall on a lateral or terminal, flexuous, shortly racemose, one to successively 5 flowered inflorescence.
Differs from H guerrerensis by the more greenish flowers lacking lateral lobes and more acute lip making it panduriform and the partially spreading,narrower sepals.
Synonyms Ponera nicaraguensis (A.D.Hawkes) Brieger 1976
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Las Orquideas de El Salvador Hamer Vol 1 1974 drawing/photo fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 8 449 - 512 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1976 as Ponera nicaraguaensis; Icones Plaetarum Tropicarum Plate 774 Hamer 1982 drawing fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum fascile 10 plate 1028 Hagsater & Soto 2008 drawing fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 photo fide
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