Maxillaria equitans (Schltr.) Garay 1958sect. Iridifoliae Pfitz 1889 Photo by © Jay Pfahl
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Common Name The Leaf-Riding Maxilllaria
Flower Size 1 1/4" [3 cm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia, in wet montane forests at an altitude of 200 to 1500 meters as a small to medium sized, hot to cool growing, caespitose, pseudobulbless epiphyte with an erect stem carrying many fleshy, bilaterally flattened, straight or recurved leaves which in youth is fully covered and with age, only has leaves towards the apex and has old grey leaf bases below. This species blooms in the spring and fall on a short, axillary, single flowered inflorescence arising from and held near the leaf axils.
This species has a decided Vandanaceous or giant equitant-look to it as it has no pseudobulbs and has bilaterally compressed, imbricating leaves.
Synonyms *Camaridium equitans Schltr. 1920; Camaridium vandiforme Schltr. 1925; Heterotaxis equitans (Schltr.) Ojeda & Carnevali 2005; Marsupiaria equitans (Schltr.) Hoehne 1947; Marsupiaria mattogrossensis (Brade) Hoehne 1947; Marsupiaria vandiformis (Schltr.) Hoehne 1947; Maxillaria matogrossensis Brade 1939; Maxillaria vandiformis (Schltr.) C. Schweinf. 1945; Vazquezella equitans (Schltr.) Szlach. & Sitko 2012
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 as Camaridium equitans; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VII 115-147 Hoehne 1953 as Marsupiaria vandiformis drawing good; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VII 115-147 Hoehne 1953 as M matogrossensis drawing ok/photo ok; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VII 115-147 Hoehne 1953 drawing good; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 5 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 drawing good; Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Part 4 Foldats 1970 as M vandiformis drawing ok; Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 2 Pabst & Dungs 1977 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing good; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 553 Atwood 1982 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 1 1984 photo fide; Orquideologia Vol 17 #3 1988 as subgen Camaridium; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 100 Bennett & Christenson 1993 drawing ok; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen lieferung 29 1777 - 1840 Brieger 1994 as Marsupiaria equitans; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 2 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing good; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 drawing fide; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo ok; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Orchids of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 as M longipes photo fide; Las Orquideas del Peru Bezverhov 2011 photo fide
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