Restrepia muscifera (Lindl.) Rchb. f. ex Lindl. 1859 SUBGENUS Restrepia SECTION Pleurothallopsis Schltr. 1918
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Another Flower Color Colombia Side View
Photos by © Milan Vágner
Drawing of Central American Specimen
Drawing of South American Specimen
Drawings by © Carl Luer
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Common Name The Fly-Carrying Restrepia
Flower Size about 1" [2.3 cm]
Found in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador as a miniature to small sized, epiphytic, caepitose, hot to coldgrowing species is at elevations of 300 to 2500 meters in tropical and montane rainforests with thin ramicauls covered with scarious sheaths and a single, apical, lanceolate or oblong, coriaceous, acute to obtuse leaf that blooms in the summer through winter on 1 to 2, peduncle slender, .28 to .8" [.7 to 2 cm] long fasciles, that produce several successive opening, faintly fragrant flowers held near the leaf base, with thin,tubular, shorter to as long as the pedicel floral bracts.
"Easily recognized by the thickly coriaceous, ovate, more or less acute leaves. The peduncles are short and adpressed to the backside of the leaf so that the small, colorfully spotted flowers ae borne near the base, facing outward on arcuate ovaries. The dorsal sepal and petals are conspicuously clavate. The petals are more or less decurved and the clubbed apex of the petal varies somewhat in size. The synsepal, usually covered by large spots, and obovate with obtuse apices, is held downward parallel to the peduncle by the sharply arcuate ovary. The lip is elliptical, oblong to ovoid, but sometimes minimally narrowed between the epichile and hypochile, The epichile is obtuse and minutely verrucose and denticulate. From each side of the hypochile a minute hair-like process curves forward." Luer 1996
Grows well both mounted and in a pot with chopped tree fern, pine bark and chopped sphagnum in cool to warm temperatures with semi-shade and high humidity.
Synonyms Pleurothallis dayana [Rchb.f] Lo Williams 1940; *Pleurothallis muscifera Lindl. 1842; Restrepia dayana Rchb.f 1875; Restrepia lansbergii Hkr. 1861; Restrepia muscifera f. dayana (Rchb.f.) O.Gruss & M.Wolff 2007; Restrepia muscifera subsp. shuttleworthii (Rolfe) H. Mohr 1996; Restrepia powellii Schlechter 1922; Restrepia shuttleworthii Rolfe 1892; Restrepia tonduzii Schlechter 1923
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Edwards's Bot. Reg. 28: Misc. 79. Lindley 1842.; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17:25. Panama Schlechter 1922 as R powellii; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as R xanthophtalma; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as R xanthophtalma drawing fide; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 203. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as R dayana; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 291. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as R tonduzii; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as Pleurothallis xanthophthalma; Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1952 as Pleurothallis xanthophthalma; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Pleurothallis xanthophtalma; Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 2 Hamer 1974 as R xanthophthalma drawing/photo fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 7 385 - 448 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975 as R xanthophthalma drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Palte 1144 Hamer 1984 as R xanthophthalma drawing ok; Icones Orchidacearum I Plate 96 Hagsater & Salazar 1990 drawing fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 4 COS 1992 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1576 Atwood 1993 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol VIII Systematics of Restrepia Luer 1996 drawing/photo fide; Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 photo fide; Oasis Vol 1 No 2 2000 photo; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo ok; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing fide; Algunas Orquideas de Oaxaca Suarez 2004 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 70 #2 2006 photo fide; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 drawing/photo fide; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 2 Morales 2009 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 81 #1 2012 photo fide; Algunas Orquideas De Mexico Tomo 1 Suarez 2012 photo fide; Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide; Richardiana XIII 234 Chrion & Szatchetko 2013 Etude de populations pour une meilleure compréhension du genre Restrepia (Orchidaceae) au Guatemala as R xanthophthalma drawing/photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 as R xanthophthalma
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