Maxillaria arachnitiflora Ames & C.Schweinf. 1930 sect. Arachnites Christenson 2013

Side View of Flower Photos by © Jay Pfahl

Plant and Flowers Photo by Allen Black ©

To

Common Name The Spider Flower Maxillaria

Flower Size 1" wide [2.5 cm]

Found in Costa Rica and Panama in cloud forests at elevations of 400 to 1400 meters as a small to medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with slender, complanate, cylindric pseudobulbs enveloped totally by imbricate, conduplicate leaf bearing sheaths and carrying a single apical, oblong-ellipitic, acute apically, conduplicate into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on many, basal, 3" [7.5 to 10 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence enveloped by obtuse, apiculate bracts and carrying sweeetly scented flowers.

This species is similar to M reichenheimiana and M pachyacron but differs in unspotted leaves, a very pronounced column foot, sepals and petals more acuminate with the tips often spiraled or pendant and the callus reaches to just above the middle of the lip.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *Schedul. Orchid. 10: 87. 1930; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 1 1959 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1338 Atwood 1989 drawing ok; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 28 1713 - 1776 Brieger 1993; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1999 drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 4 Morales 2009 photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide

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