Zootrophion machaqway A.Doucette & J.Portilla 2016
Photo by © Pepe Portilla and The Ecuagenera Orchid Website
TYPE Drawing by Alphonso Doucette
EARLY 
Common Name or Meaning The Snake-Like Zootrophion [—From the Quechua word for snake, in reference to the serpent-like growth habit and flowers, resembling the head of a snake, used as a noun in apposition]
Flower Size
Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador without elevational data as a mini-miniature sized, repent epiphyte with ramicauls ebveloped by 3 to 5 sheathss and carrying a single, apical ovate, rounded below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the early spring on an erect, peduncle .28 to .4" [.7 to 1 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with tubular, shorter than the pediicel floral bracts.
" The species is most similar to Zootrophion atropurpureum but differs by the repent habit and broader flowers. Zootrophion machaqway is readily distinguished from the Z hirtzii and Z serpentinum with a repent habit by the lateral sepal that is fused at the base to the lateral sepal instead of free at the base and in having a carinate dorsal sepal. Although the species is repent, we hypothesize that the new species is more closely related to the caespitose Zootrophion species based on the carinate sepals, fusion of the dorsal sepal to the base to the lateral sepals, petals about as long as the column and acute apex of the lip" Doucette & Portilla 2016
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Phytotaxa 257 (3) 244 © Doucette & Portilla 2016 drawing/photo fide;
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