Porpax elwesii (Rchb.f.) Rolfe 1908
Photo by André Schuiteman, courtesy of Dr. E.F. de Vogel and Jaap Vermeulenand Their Netherlands National Herbarium Website
EARLY
Common Name Elwes's Bulbophyllum [British Orchid Collector in Thailand 1900's]
Flower Size 1/2" [1.2 cm]
Found in Assam, Bhutan, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and Vietnam on open vertical cliffs at elevations of 700 to 1600 meters as a miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte or lithophyte with densely clustered, flattened, globose-turbinate to discoid-lenticular, Hershey-kiss-like, green with brown veins pseudobulbs enveloped basally by a fibrous membrane carrying, 2, apical, elliptic oblong, mucronate, grooved, shortly petiolate leaves that appear after flowering and blooms in the early summer on a terminal, short to 2" [2.5 to 5 cm], one flowered inflorescence that arises from the apex of the pseudobulb.
These photos match the drawing by Seidenfaden & Smitinand of P nummularia with a very short inflorescence with a bract covering the lower half of the flower much better than the drawing of P elwesii by Seidenfaden & Smitinand that has a 3/4" long inflorescence with encompassing floral bract, hard to see how both are one species.
Synonyms *Eria elwesii Rchb.f. 1883; Eria nummularia Kraenzl. 1901; Eria semiconnata Kraenzl. 1901; Porpax meirax var. elwesii (Rchb.f.) R.C.Srivast. 1995; Porpax nummularia (Kraenzl.) Smitinand 1958; Porpax semiconnata (Kraenzl.) Smitinand 1958
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1960 drawing wrong has inflorescence that is at least 3/4" and no basal encompassing floral bract; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1960 as P semiconnata; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1960 as P nummularia drawing; Contribution to a Revision of the Orchid Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam Seidenfaden 1975 as Eria nummularia; Contribution to a Revision of the Orchid Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam Seidenfaden 1975 as Eria semiconnata; Botanisk Tiddskrft Bind 72 1-14 Contributions to the Orchid Flora of Thailand VIII Seidenfaden 1977 drawing fide; The Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia and Singapore Woods & Seidenfaden 1992 drawing ok; Identification of the Orchids [Orchidaceae Juss.] Vietnam Averyanov 1994; Bulbophyllum and Their Allies Siegerist 2001; A Field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand 2001 photo ok; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002 drawing fide; A field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2005 photo ok; 100 Sikkim Himalayan Orchids Pradhan 2005 photo fide; The Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 drawing fide; Turczaninowia 16(4):26-46 NEW AND RARE ORCHIDS (ORCHIDACEAE) IN THE FLORA OF CAMBODIA AND LAOS Averyanov 2013 photo ; Turczaninowia 19 (3): 5–58 L. V. Averyanov, Khang Sinh Nguyen etal 2016
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