!Restrepiella ophiocephala (Lindl.) Garay & Dunst. 1966
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © Dale and Deni Borders.
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
to 
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Common Name Snake's Head Restrepiella
Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]
Found in Florida USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Colombia in damp, lower montane forests with rivers, margins of swamp forest and coffee plantations at elevations of 40 to 1600 meters as a medium sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte with a short creeping rhizome and stout, well clustered, erect cylindric stems mostly covered with tubular sheaths that carries a single, eliptic-lanceolate, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, shortly petiolate base leaf at the apex and carrying basally, a large tubular spathe at the leaf base from which the short, ringent, fasciculate inflorescence arises from the ramicaul without an annulus with 1 to 4 flowers at a time, and with more that appear successively after the last has faded. This species blooms in the winter and spring and likes to be evenly moist year round.
"Characterized by the stout ramicaul witha tubular sheath near the middle and a few at the base, a thickly coriaceous, shortly petiolate base leaf and a single flowered, short-pedunculate inflorescence subtended by a large sheath near the apex of the ramicaul. The gaping bilabiate flower is fleshy and shortly pubescent. The color varies from yellow witha few red flecks to rose and diffusely spotted with purple. The petals are ciliate and [ubescent. The lip is thick with erect, basal, marginal angles. The column is stout with a denticulate apex and a vebtral anther with 4 pollina." Luer 1991
Synonyms *Pleurothallis ophiocephala Lindl. 1838; Pleurothallis peduncularis Hook. 1841; Pleurothallis puberula Klotzsch 1854; Pleurothallis stigmatoglossa Rchb. f. ex Lindl. 1859; Restrepia ophiocephala (Lindl.) Rchb. f. 1854; Restrepiella ophiocephala f. clausa I.Bock 1996
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; Bonplandia 2(7): 88. 1854 as Restrepia ophiocephala; Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1952 as Pleurothallis ophiocephala; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Pleurothallis ophiocephala; AOS Bulletin Vol 37 No 11 1968 as Pleurothallis ophiocephala photo fide; The Native Orchids of Florida Luer 1972 drawing/photos fideLas Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 2 Hamer 1974 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #8 1975; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 7 385 - 448 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 5 1979; Orquídea (Mexico City), n.s., 7[3]: 1979; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1145 Dodson 1984 drawing fide; ; An Introdution to the Orchids of Mexico Wiard 1987 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum VIII Systematics of Lepanthospsis, Octomeria subgenus Pleurothallopsis, Restrepiella, Salpistele and Teagueia Luer 1991 drawing/photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1488 Atwood 1992 drawing fide; The Manual Of CuIcones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of the Pleurothallidinae Vol 1 1986 drawing fide; Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 3 1998 drawing fide; Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42-43 pg 2624 - 2756 Brieger 2001; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing fide; Algunas Orquideas de Oaxaca Suarez 2004 photo fide; Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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