Maxillaria chionantha J.T.Atwood 1995

Another Angle Photos by © Daniel Jimenez and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website

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Common Name The Snow White Flowered Maxillaria

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador in premontane evergreen forests at elevations of 600 to 1000 meters as a small sized, warm growing epiphyte with ovoid, compresssed pseudobulbs enveloped below by 1 to 3, subtending, foliaceous, long petiolate base sheaths and carrying a single, apical, usually broadly elliptic, acute, apiculate, 7 veined, crisped margined, abruptly narrowing below into the elongate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer through winter on 1, arising from the rhizome bract, [3.5 to 8 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence enveloped completely by inflated, acute bracts and has an acute, cucullate, longer than the ovary floral bract.

Similar to M pachyacron but it has a usually longer inflorescence, larger flowers with more attenuate segments and a much more distincly 3 lobed lip on the upper 1/6th. It is also similar to M attenuata but it is a much smaller plant and has smaller red to maroon flowers with a simple lip, attenuate floral segments and distinctly petiolate base leaves.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Fieldiana Botany Flora Costa Ricensis Family 39 Orchidaceae, Tribe Maxillariaeae Atwood & Mora de Retana 1999 drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;

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