Panarica brassavolae [Rchb.f] Withner & Harding 2004
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo courtesy of Andy's Orchids Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved.
Drawing By © R Jimenz/Hagsater & Soto
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Common Name The Brassavola-Like Panarica [refers to the flower shape]
Flower Size to 4" [to 10 cm]
Found in (Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas states of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras< El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panamaat altitudes of 900 to 2500 meters in wet pine oak and evergreen forest on larger branches and tree trunks as a medium sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte and occasional lithophyte with elongate, ovoid, bifoliate pseudobulbs with papery, basal bracts and a elliptic-oblong, obtuse, becoming loosely conduplicate below into the base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on an apical, erect, subtended by a large brown sheath, arising on a newly matured pseudobulb, to 18" [45 cm] long, few to many [5 to 19] flowered, racemose inflorescence and carrying faintly fragrant, fleshy flowers.
"This very handsome species is widely appreciated in horticulture. It has several allies in Central America, including the complex of Panarica prismatocarpa . It is especially close to Panarica mulasii , from western Mexico, which has shorter rhizome, just up to .8" [2 cm] long (vs. .8 to 1" [2 to 5 cm] in P. brassavolae), smaller, ovoid pseudobulbs up to 3.6" [9 cm] high (vs. pyriform to lanceolate, elongate, up to 8" [20 cm] high), 1 to 2 leaved pseudobulbs (vs. 2 to 3 leaved), greenish-white, spherical flowers (vs. tawny yellow-olive green, tanned, star-shaped flowers), racemes with 4 to 8 flowers (vs. 5 to 19 flowers), triangular lip blade with a truncate base and a long acuminate apex (vs. lanceolate-ovate, subcordate to obtuse at the base and an acuminate to abruptly acuminate apex), sparsely blotched column (vs. densely spotted), the raceme is produced on the pseudobulb of the previous year (vs. on the pseudobulb produced usually 2 years before), and the floral fragrance is reminiscent of honeysuckle (vs. to lemon grass). The specimens from the Sierra Madre Oriental have narrower lips and less attractive flowers when compared with specimens from Chiapas. However, ovate and even broader lips with a cordate base may occur in Panamanian and Costa Rican plants; this variation seems, therefore, to be clinal." Hagsater & Soto 2002
Synonyms Encyclia brassavolae (Rchb. f.) Dressler 1961; Encyclium brassavolae [Rchb.f] Lindley ex Stein 1892; *Epidendrum brassavolae Rchb. f. 1852; Hormidium brassavolae [Rchb.f] Brieger 1877; Prosthechea brassavolae (Rchb. f.) W. E. Higgins 1997; Pseudencyclia brassavolae (Rchb.f.) V.P.Castro & Chiron 2003
ReferencesW3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR as Protheschea brassavolae;
Bot. Zeit. Berlin 10: 729. 1852 as Epidendrum brassavolae;
Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Epidendrum brassavolae;
Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as Epidendrum brassavolae drawing fide;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 34. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as Epidendrum brassavolae;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 117. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as Epidendrum brassavolae;
The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936 as Epidendrum brassavolae;
The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as Epidendrum brassavolae;
AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 9 1961 as Epidendrum brassavolae;
Brittonia 13: 265 Dressler 1961 as Encyclia brassavolae;
AOS Bulletin Vol 31 No 3 1962 as Epidendrum brassavolae;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Epidendrum brassavolae;
AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 5 1969 as Epidendrum brassavolae photo fide;
Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 1 Hamer 1974 as Epidendrum brassavolae drawing/photo fide;
Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as Hormidium brassavolae;
Orquideologia Vol 12 No 3/4 1977/8 as Epidendrum brassavolae photo fide;
Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 as Epidendrum brassavolae drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 684 Hamer 1982 as Encyclia brassavolae drawing ok;
Flora Novo-Galaciana Vol 16 McVaugh 1985 as Encyclia brassavolae;
Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 as Encyclia brassavolae drawing fide;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1421 Atwood 1992 as Encyclia brassavolae drawing fide;
The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 as Encyclia brassavolae photo fide;
Phytologia 82: 376 W E Higgins 1997 publ. 1998 as Prosthechea brassavolae;
Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 as Encyclia brassavolae photo fide;
*Cattleyas and Their Relatives Vol 7 Withner 2002 photo fide;
Icones Orchidacearum 5 - 6 Orchids of Mexico Part 2 - 3 Plate 649 Hagsater & Soto 2002 as Prosthechea brassavolae drawing fide;
Richardiana 4: 32 V P Castro & Chiron 2003 as Pseudencylia brassavolae;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 as Prosthechea brassavolae;
Algunas Orquideas de Oaxaca Suarez 2004 as Prosthechea brassavolae photo fide;
Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 as Prosthechea brassavolae photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 87 #10 2018 as Prosthechea brassavolae photo fide;
Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1791 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section E brassavolae in error = E brassavoliforme;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 as Pseudoencyclia brassavolae photo fide;
Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 as Prosthechea campylostalix as Prosthechea brassavolae photo fide;
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:420 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 drawing/photo fide;
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