Prosthechea panthera [Rchb.f]Higgins 1997
Photo by © Alexander Zollig
Photo by © Robert Weyman Bussey
Drawing by © R Jimenez/Soto Hagsater
to 
Common Name The Panther-Like Prosthechea
Flower Size1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Oaxaca and Chiapas states of Mexico and Guatemala as a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphytic species found at altitudes of 1300 to 2100 meters in dry oak or pine oak forests with widely spaced, fusiform to ovoid-fusiform pseudobulbs that carrying 2 to 3, linear-ligulate, obtuse leaves and blooms in the winter and spring on an apical, simple, 8 3/4" [22 cm] long, 8 to 15 flowered inflorescence with triangular-ovate, subacute, concave, membraneous, much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate, florally fragrant flowers.
This species is allied to Prosthechea ochracea (Lindl.) Dressler but P panthera species has an elongate, creeping rhizome, papyraceous sheaths strongly adpressed tothe pseudobulbs and boldly blotched floral segments. The clinanrium has lateral teeth reduced to small keels but the margi is continuous with the ligule and it is prominently lacerate-fimbriate. Alos the capsule of P panthera is not winged as it is in P ochracea.
Synonyms Encyclia panthera (Rchb. f.) Schltr. 1918; *Epidendrum panthera Rchb. f. 1956; Epidendrum papyriferum Schlechter 1899; Hormidium panthera (Rchb. f.) Brieger 1977
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Bonplandia (Hannover) 4: 326 Rchb.f 1856 as Epidendrum pantherianum;
Bull. Herb. Boissier 7: 543 Schlechter 1899 as Epidendrum papyriferum;
Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 36(2): 473 Schlechter 1918 as Encyclia panthera;
Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as Hormidium panthera drawing fide;
*Phytologia 82: 279 W E HIggins 1997 publ. 1998;
Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 as Encyclia pantera photo fide;
The Cattleya and Their Relatives Vol 7 The Debateable Epidendrum Withner & Harding 2004 photo fide;
Icones Orchidacearum fascile 10 plate 1070 Hagsater & Soto 2008 drawing fide;
Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 87 #1 2018 photo fide;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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