Thelasis sphaerocarpa (Schltr.) J.J.Sm 1916 SUBGENUS Oxyanthera
Plant and Flowers Photos courtesy of Dr. E.F. de Vogel, André Schuiteman and Jaap Vermeulen and Their Netherlands National Herbarium Website
Common Name The Sphere-Shaped Seed Pod Thelasis
Flower Size .1" [.25 cm]
Found in New Guinea in primary and secondary forests at elevations of 25 to 1450 meters as a miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with a very short, erect stem carrying 6 to 8, distichous, erect-patent, linear-oblong, unequally bilobulte apically, glabrous, sub-coriaceous, attached to the clasping leaf sheaths below leaves that blooms at any time of the year on an erect, to 2.8" [to 7 cm] long, laxly 5 to 15 flowered inflorescence with 3 to 4 small, distant, acuminate, peduncle scales and ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, minute, much shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate, patent to pendant flowers.
Synonyms Octarrhena sphaerocarpa (Schltr.) P.F.Hunt 1970; *Phreatia sphaerocarpa Schltr.1905; Phreatia thelasiflora J.J.Sm. 1908; Rhynchophreatia sphaerocarpa (Schltr.) Schltr. 1921
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchidaceae of German New Guinea Schlechter 1914/1985 as Phreatia sphaerocarpa; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 drawing ok; Flora Malesia Orchids of New Guinea Vol V 2008;
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