Aspasia variegata Lindl. 1836 Photo courtesy of Dario Melgar

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Common Name The Variegated Aspasia

Flower Size 1 3/4" [4.5 cm]

Found in Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia in moist forests at elevations of 200 meters as a small sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with a creeping, slender, bracteate rhizome and laterally strongly flattened, ellipsoid to oblong, glossy light green, pseudobulbs that become lightly sulcate with age subtended by 2 to 3 leaf bearing sheaths and carrying one or two, apical, glabrous, subcoriaceous, lanceolate to ligulate, acute, basally conduplicate and articulate leaves, blooming on an ascending, few to several flowered, to 10" [25 cm] long, racemose inflorescence that gives rise to a few, successively opening, fragrant flowers occurring in the spring and summer and grows hot to warm, with high humidity and moderate shade. After flowering a short 1 to 2 month rest is beneficial, resume watering and fertilizer with the onset of new growth and flowers best if given very cramped quarters in a small pot.

Synonyms Aspasia interrupta Hoffmanns. 1844; Aspasia liturata Link ex Rchb.f. 1855; Odontoglossum variegatum (Lindl.) Rchb.f. 1864

References W3 Tropicos Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *Edwards's Bot. Reg. 22: sub t. 1907. 1836; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 drawing; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing fide; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Encylopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 5 1970 drawing fide; Venezuela; Paraiso de Orquideas Romero 1997 photo fide; The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Orchids of Bolivia plate 0301 Dodson & Vasquez 1989 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 61 No 10 1992 drawing; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Native Colombian Orchids vol 5 COS 1994 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Dunsterville and Garay 1979 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003 drawing ok; Orchids of The Brazilian Central Plateua Menezes 2004 photo fide

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