Angraecum calceolus Thouars 1822 SECTION Gomphocentrum [Bentham] GarayPhoto Courtesy of Olaf Pronk and His Olaf Pronk and Laurette E.U.R.L. orchids of Madagascar Website

Another View Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding Copyright ©

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Common Name or Meaning The Small Shoe Angraecum

Flower Size 4/5" [2 cm] Spur 1/3 to 1/2" [1 to 1.2 cm]

A small sized, epipytic or lithophytic, warm to hot growing orchid found in coastal forests in shady, humid forests usually the base of shrubs and trees at elevations of 30 to to 2000 meters with very short stem carrying 3 to 10, narrowly lanceolate or ligulate, broad, distichous leaves that blooms in the summer on a racemose to paniculate, 6 to 12" [15 to 30 cm] long inflorescence with, laxly few to several [4 to 6] flowers and all shorter than the leaves that is found in Mozambique, Madagascar as well as the Indian Ocean Islands Of Comoros, Reunion, Mauritius, the Mascarenes and the Seychelles. This is one of two species that is found in Africa as well as the Indian Ocean Islands and is unusual in that, with older specimens, it is possible to have a branched inflorescence.

Synonyms Aeranthes calceolus (Thouars) S. Moore 1877; Aeranthus calceolus [Thou]S. Moore; Aerobion calceolus (Thouars) Spreng. 1826; Angraecum anocentrum Schlechter 1898; Angraecum carpophorum Thouars 1822; Angraecum paniculatum Frapp. ex Cordem. 1895; Angraecum patens Frapp. ex Cordem. 1895; Angraecum rhopaloceras Schlechter 1925; Epidorchis calceolus [Thou] O.Ktze 1891; Epidorchis carpophora (Thouars) Kuntze 1891; Macroplectrum calceolus [Thou] Finet 1907; Mystacidium calceolus (Thouars) Cordem. 1895; Mystacidium carpophorum (Thouars) Cordem. 1895

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1935/1981; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 6 1980 photo; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb and Laurent 1980; Cultivated Angraecoid Orchids Of Madagascar Hillerman & Holst 1986; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 2 Pope 1998; Botanica Orchids Laurel Glen 2002; Boletim CAOB #52 2003; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005; Angraecoid Orchids Stewart, Hermans, Campbell 2006

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