!Aspasia epidendroides Lindley 1834 Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

Flower Closeup Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt

Another Flower Form Photo by © Lourens Grobler.

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Common Name The Epidendrum-Like Aspasia

Flower Size 1 1/2" long [3.75 cm]

A fragrant, winter to fall bloomer that is often used in hybridizing and makes the new genera Miltassia when crossed with Miltonia. I grow mine in a pot with OFE special mix with a handful of Fennel rock [expanded shale] added to drain faster. They are found as an epiphyte at elevations below 1000 meters in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Northern South America as an epiphyte overhanging rivers in moist forests and have compressed, ovoidal psuedobulbs and two to three apical, linear-oblong, to narrowly lanceolate, acute or acuminate, subcoriaceous leaves, and the inflorescence, occurring in the late fall, is erect, 4 to 10" [10 to 25 cm] long, basal, racemose inflorescence with scarious, appressed, acuminate floral bracts arising on a newly formed pseudobulb and has a few longlasting, distichously arranged, color variable, fragrant flowers that open in sucession from winter through spring. It needs crowded pot conditions and hot to warm temperatures to flower best.

Synonyms Aspasia barclayi Rolfe, Bull. 1892 ; Aspasia fragrans Kl. 1853; Odontoglossum aspasia Rchb.f 1861

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl. 139. 1832; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 drawing; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17: 76. Panama Schlechter 1922; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 62. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 251. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Orchids of Belize and Guatemala Ames & Correl 1952/85; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids drawing fide 1965; Orchid Digest Vol 38 No 2 1974 photo fide; Orquideas de El Salvador Hamer 1974 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 3 1979 drawing; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 2 1980; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 604 Hamer 1982 drawing fide; Orchids Of Panama Williams 1985; Simon & Schuster's Guide to Orchids Fanfani & Rossi 1988; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Laurent 1992; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1502 Mora & Atwood 1993 drawing fide; A field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1997; The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2001; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006;

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