Maxillaria lehmannii Rchb.f 1886 Photo by © Alexander Hirtz

Head On Flower Photo by Dale and Deni Borders

Another Flower in Peru Photo by © Alexander Reynolds and The UC Davis Botany Team

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Common Name or Meaning Lehmann's Maxillaria [German Counsel to Colombia and Orchid enthusiast late 1800's]

Flower Size 4.4 to 5.2" [11 to 13 cm]

Found in western Ecuador and Peru in wet montane cloud forests on steep embankments at elevations of 700 to 2000 meters as a large sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte or terrestrial with flattened, elliptical pseudobulbs enveloped basally by several leaf bearing sheaths and carries a single, apical, linear, obtuse leaf that is gradually conduplicate into the narrow, elongate, channeled petiole that blooms in the spring and summer on an erect, 8" [20 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence enveloped completely by imbricating, tubular, acute bracts and arising on a mature pseudobulb holding the large flower at mid-leaf.

This species is often cited as a synonym of M grandiflora but differs by having a population occuring solely on the western slopes of the Andes with minimal variation and has very large flowers with rigid floral segments.

Similar to Maxillaria augusta-victoriae, M christensonii, M crispiloba, M colombiana, M dichroma, M × doucetteana, M eburnea, M elegantula, M fletcheriana, M fucata, M grandiflora, M grandis, M irrorata, M sanderiana, and Maxillaria turkeliae

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1878; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 397 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 28 1713 - 1776 Brieger 1993; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 698 Bennett & Christenson 2001 drawing not =? [See Orquideologia Vol 22 #3 2003; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo good; Orquideologia Vol 22 #3 2003 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 10 2005 photo fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide

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