Brachtia andina Rchb.f. 1856

Another flower Photo courtesy of Andy's Orchids, Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved

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Common Name The Andean Brachtia

Flower Size 1/2" [1.25 cm]

A small sized, cool to cold growing, Colombian, Ecuadorean and Peruvian miniature epiphyte found in temperate cloud forests at altitudes of 1200 to 2800 meters that has a creeping rhizome with ancipitous, narrowly oblong ovate pseudobulbs subtended and enveloped bv several, imbricating, leaf-bearing sheaths above and scarious bracts below that carry a single, apical, narrowly oblong-elliptic, obtuse leaf that basally is contracted into a petiole and blooms in situ in Ecuador in the winter and early spring on a basal from the leaf axils, erect, 8" [20 cm] long raceme, equaling the length of the leaf and arising on a mature psedobulb, with glumaceous, inflated floral sheaths and many long-lasting, fleshy flowers that droop with both bein g segregated to one side of the inflorescence. Best mounted on tree fern and hung in a well shaded, humid enviroment similar to the cool growing Masdevallia.

Synonyms Brachtia verruculifera Schlechter 1920

References W3 Tropicos Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 Brachtia verruculifera; The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2005; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Dodson 1982; Native Colombia Orchids; vol 1 COS 1991; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1994; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1987 Genus only; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel; Cribb 7& Laurent 1982; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide

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