Barkeria palmeri [Rolfe]Schlechter 1918

Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

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Common Name Palmer's Barkeria

Flower Size about 3/4" [2 to 3 cm]

From mid-western, Pacific coastal Mexico at elevations of sealevel to 1300 meters, this hot to warm growing epiphyte is found in tropical deciduous or semi-deciduous forests species and needs to be mounted on a small branch of wood and have fusiform, slender pseudobulbs that are enclosed by scarious sheaths and having reddish green, deciduous, coriaceous, fleshy, narrowly lanceolate leaves that will bloom on an apical, simple or branched, 12" [30 cm] long, several to many [2-100] flowered inflorescence occuring in the mid-winter. This orchid is deciduous and loses it's leaves in the fall before the mid winter blooming. Best to mount this species on wood sticks and give plenty of bright light, water and fertilizer while growing. As the leaves yellow and fall off in the mid to late fall it is time to stop watering and fertilizing, witholding until the new growth appears in the early spring after blooming.

Synonyms Barkeria chinensis ssp. palmeri [Rolfe] Thein 1970; Broughtonia cubensis [Lindley] Lindley ex Cogn. 1910; *Epidendrum palmeri Rolfe 1893; Laeliopsis cubensis {Lindley] Lindley ex Cogn. 1910

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora Novo-Galaciana Vol 16 McVaugh 1985; Miniature Orchids McQueen 1992; Minature Orchids Northen 1980; Icones Orchidacearum I Soto Arenas 1990;