Oncidium pentadactylon Lindl. 1845 SECTION Heterantha
Photo by Andreas Kay ©
Photo courtesy of Carlos Hajek and his Peruvian Orchid Page
Common Name The Five Fingered Oncidium [refers to the calli on the lip]
Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]
Found in Venezuela?, Colombia?, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in wet cloud forests as a small sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte or terrestrial on steep embankments at elevations of 1000 to 3400 meters with smooth, elliptical, laterally compressed, roundly ancipitous pseudobulbs partially subtended by a few leafless below and leaf bearing above sheaths and carrying 2, apical, oblong-lanceolate, conduplicate below into the short petiole-like base leaves that blooms in nature in the fall on an axillary, 36" [90 cm] long, twining, erect, many flowered, paniculate inflorescence arising on a mature pseudobulb and having 8 to 10 branches with 3 to 7 normal and 1 to 2 abortive [sterile] star shaped flowers.
The Bolivian population is the same in all aspects other than the inflorescence never exceeds 8" [20 cm] and therefore is not twinning.
Very similar to O heterodactylum but differs in the more pronounced crook in the column and the downward pointing central finger of the calli.
Synonyms Heteranthocidium aspecum (Königer) Szlach. & Kolan. 2015; Heteranthocidium millei (Schltr.) Szlach. & Kolan. 2015; Heteranthocidium pentadactylon (Lindl.) Szlach., Mytnik & Romowicz 2006; Oncidium aspecum Königer 1996; Oncidium millei Schltr. 1921;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922 as O millei; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten III Ecuador Schlechter 1921 as O millei; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 5 1970; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 187 Dodson 1980 drawing hmm; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Orchids of Peru Plate 0139 Dodson & Bennett 1989 drawing not = O heterodactylum; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 33 - 36 2057 - 2308 Brieger 1997; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing hmm/photo fide; Orquideologia Vol. 23 No 2 2004; Oncidium Vol 2 Koniger 2005 drawing/photo fide; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; Oncidium Vol 3 Koniger 2007 Photo/drawing; Orchid Digest Vol 74 #3 2010 photo fide; LANKESTERIANA 19(2).125 - 193 Ossenbach & Jenny 2019 as O millei drawing fide
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