Oncidium bracteatum Warsz. & Rchb. f. 1852 SECTION Sphacelatum
Photos by © Bogarin, Used under permission of the The Epidendra Website
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Common Name The Bracted Oncidium
Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]
Found in Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia in woods and pastures on tree trunks at elevations of 1000 to 2400 meters as a medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with slender, almost linear in profile, brown, laterally compressed pseudobulbs enveloped basally by several distichous, imbricating leafless below and leaf-bearing above sheaths and carry 1 to 2 strap shaped, obtuse, leathery, conduplicate below into the elongate, slender petiolate base that blooms in the spring and summer on an axillary, erect to arching, to 39" [to 100 cm] long, racemose when young inflorescence that with age becomes a short, branched panicle with several, elongate, obvious, acute, pale brown bracts and carrying many flowers with only 2 to 3 for each branch.
Distiguished by its unusually large bracts of the branches and the flowers. It is remarkable as well in its inflorescence that develops its entire length without branching and stays that way for months before developing its branches and flowers which arise quite rapidly often within a few days. O storkii is the only other species within the species range with the same large bracts.
Synonyms Oncidium henrici-gustavi Kraenzl. 1922; Oncidium paleatum Schltr. 1923
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Epidendra Website; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922 as Oncidium henricigustavi; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 257. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 260. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as O paleatum; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1059 Dodson 1984 as Oncidium paleatum drawing ok; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1999 drawing fide; The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2002; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Oncidium Vol 1 Koniger 2004 photo/drawing fide; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 NO 8 2007 photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide
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