Octomeria hirtzii Luer 2002

drawing by Carl Luer

Common Name Hirtz's Octomeria [Orchid Enthusiast in Ecuador current]

Flower Size .8" [2 cm]

Found in Zamora-Chinchipe department of Ecuador at elevations around 1900 to 2100 meters as a large sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout, terete ramicauls enveloped by 8 to 11, shredded tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly linear-oblong, acute, narrowly cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall and winter on a fascile of a few, erect, peduncle .08 to .12" [2 to 3 mm] long, at the apex of the ramicaul, successively single flowered inflorescence with a shorter than the ovary floral bract and carrying yellow flowers.

"The species is characterized by the large size and is one of the largest in the genus rivaling Octomeria peruviana. They can be almost a meter tall! The leaves of O hirtzii are narrowly linear while O peruviana has wider and narrowly ovate leaves. The flowers are similar to O grandiflora and O peruviana with sepals usually over .4" [1 cm] long and 5 to 7 veined. The petals are similar and are nearly as large as the sepals. The lip is also similar but the lateral lobes are smaller, subacute and antrorse and the apex is boadly rounded and erose with a minute apiculum at the tip."Luer 2010

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXI Luer 2010 Drawing fide

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