Oncidium raniferum Lindl. 1837 SECTION Concoloria

Inflorescence and plant

Photos by © Luiz Filipe Varela and his Flicker website

Side View of Flower

Photo by © Dalton Holland Baptista

and

Common Name The Frog Oncidium

Flower Size more than 1/2" [more than 1.25 cm]

Found in eastern Brazil at elevations around 1800 meters as an small sized, cool growing epiphyte with bifoliate, ribbed, flat conical to slim conical pseudobulbs subtended by several scarious bracts and carrying 2 to 3 leaf-bearing sheaths with suberect, thinly coriaceous, linear or linear-lanceolate, subacute leaves that blooms in the summer and fall to an erect, many branched, spreading, to 14" [35 cm] long, many flowered panicle with lanceolate, acute bracts and carrying small, showy flowers.

This species, Onc lofgreni and O hookeri are all very similar and according to Brazilians sources are only separated if the area of collection is known as differences are very small and are mostly vegatative. Newer references refer them all as synonyms of Oncidium raniferum but I have left them and their synonyms separate for now.

Synonyms Carenidium raniferum (Lindl.) Baptista 2006; Coppensia ranifera (Lindl.) F.Barros & V.T.Rodrigues 2010; Gomesa ranifera (Lindl.) M.W.Chase & N.H.Williams 2009; Menezesiella ranifera (Lindl.) Chiron & V.P. Castro 2006; Oncidium raniferum var. majus Hook. 1839

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing ok; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 2 Pabst & Dungs 1977 drawing fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo not = O loefgrenii; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 33 - 36 2057 - 2308 Brieger 1997; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2002; AOS Bulletin Vol 78 No 2 2009 photo fide as Menezesiella raniferum; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 as Oncidium ornithorhynchum photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 # 3 2017 as Gomesa raniferum drawing fide;

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