!Tetramicra canaliculata [Aubl.] Urban 1918 Photo by Lourens Grobler Copyright © 2006 All rights reserved.
Another Flower Photo courtesy of Oak Hill GardensCopyright © 2002 All rights reserved.
LATEand
Common Name Groove Leafed Tetramicra
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Florida, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Haiti as a small sized, warm growing, lithophytic or epiphytic found in lowland scrub at the base of rosemary bushes or on rocky hillsides among limestone in full sun with sticklike short stems enveloped basally by imbricate, papery sheaths carrying 2 to 5 distichous, fleshy, semi-terete, linear-subulate, acute, channeled leaves and blooms on a 2'4" [70 cm] long, slender, racemose, few [to 8] flowered inflorescence that has several sheaths and ovate, acute bracts and the apically located, flowers opening in succession with up to 4 open at a time, all occuring in late spring and summer with slightly fragrant, showy flowers.
Many references including Kew place T elegans as synonomous with this species but I have kept them separate. See T elegans to see the differnces between the plants and the flowers.
Synonyms Bletia rigida Rchb.f 1861; Bletia schomburgkii Rchb.f. 1862; Brassavola rigida Bold. ?; Cymbidium rigidum Willd. 1805; Epidendrum canaliculatum [Aubl.] Poiret 1810; Helliborne folis rigidis Plumier 1703; *Limodorum canaliculatum Aubl. 1775; Limodorum folis subulatus Wildn. 1758; Tetramicra rigida [Wilde] Lindley 1831; Tetramicra schomburgkii (Rchb.f.) Rolfe1889
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae vol 2 Rchb.f 1862 as Bletia rigida; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960 = T elegans; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; AOS Bulletin Vol 35 No 6 1966 photo fide; The Native Orchids of Florida Luer 1972 drawing/photos fide; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 = T elegans; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #8 1975; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as T schomburgkia drawing hmm; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as T rigida; AOS Bulletin Vol 51 No 9 1982 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 61 No 10 1992 photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing fide; An Orchid Flora of Peurto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 = T elegans; Cattleyas and Their Relatives Vol 4 Withner 1996 photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001 ; A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species Vol 2 Parsons & Gerritson 2013 photo not = T elegans; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide
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