Barkeria spectabilis Bateman ex Lindley 1842 Photo by Jay Pfahl ©

Another Flower Photo courtesy of Danny Lentz and plant grown by the Atlanta Botanical Garden ©

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Common Name The Spectacular Barkeria

Flower Size 1 /34" to 3" [4 to 8 cm]

Found in Southern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador where it grows as a small sized epiphyte or lithophyte in dry areas on oak trees and bushes at elevations of 1300-3500 meters with fusiform-cylindrical, erect pseudobulbs carrying ovate to linear-lanceolate, subcoriaceous, acute to acuminate leaves. It is a warm to cool growing orchid and likes to be mounted on wood branches with moderate shade and even watering while growing and a drier winter rest after leaf drop. It flowers in the summer on a few to many flowered, apical, 10" [25 cm] long, racemose or paniculate inflorescence arising on a newly arising pseudobulb with short-lived non-fragrant flowers that open in succession.

Synonyms Barkeria lindleyanan ssps. spectabile [Batem ex Lindl.] Rchb.f 1862; Epidendrum spectabile (Bateman ex Lindl.) Rchb. f. ex Müll. Berol. 1862

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Miniature Orchids McQueen 1992; Minature Orchids Northen 1980; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Hamer 1982; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Hamer 1974; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1985; Simon & Schuster's Guide to Orchids Fanfani & Rossi 1988; Icones Orchidacearum 5 & 6 Orchids Of Mexico Parts 2 & 3 Plate 529 Hagsater, Soto 2002