Sigmatostalix hymenantha Schltr.1918
Drawing by © O Achi
Original Drawings by © Padre Pedro Ortiz Conserved at the Herbario de la Universidad Javeriana, Bogota Colombia
Common Name The Delicately Flowered Sigmatostalix
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia on twigs and smaller branches at elevations of 50 to 950 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with elliptic-ovoid, compressed psedupbulbs enveloped basally by 2 to 4 foliaceous sheaths and carrying a single, apical, subcoriaceous, linear-lanceolate, carinate below, acute leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on a lateral, axillary, [4 to 20 cm] long, paniculate, successively single, many flowered inflorescence with a cluster of brown membraneous, obovate floral bracts.
"Probably the most striking character of S. hymenantha is its unguiculate and clearly 3- lobed lip with suborbicular, subcrenulate lobes (Schlechter 1918, 1919). One could be tempted to consider S. hymenantha cospecific with S. picturatissima, the only other species in Costa Rica that presents a subsessile and clearly 3- lobed lip, but several inconsistencies in morphological characters between the two taxa preclude such a decision. The lip of S. hymenantha is shorter than sepals versus longer than sepals in S. picturatissima, the petals are lanceolate-ligulate versus widely elliptic-ovate, the column is shorter versus longer than lip. The callus of S. hymenantha is too vaguely sketched in the copy of type, and the concise description done by Schlechter is not precise enough to give a clear idea of its morphological structure. On the basis of the drawing at AMES, it should be interpreted as a rather small (<1/5 of lip length), 2-lobed structure provided with a central, triangular, acute projection seemingly placed below the callus plate, which has no close affinities with callus structure in other species from Costa Rica" Pupulin 2003
Synonyms Oncidium hymenanthum (Schltr.) M.W.Chase & N.H.Williams 2008
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Das Pflanzanreich Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922 drawing hmm; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1999 drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 35–59 Pupulin 2003 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 12 2008 as Oncidium hymenanthum
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