Brassia warzcewiczii Rchb. f. 1852 Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

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Common Name Warczewicz's Brassia [polish orchid collector in South America 1800's]

Flower Size 3/4" [1.8 cm]

Found as a medium to large sized, hot growing epiphyte only in Ecuador below 250 meters in elevation in wet montane forests on large trees with a woody rhizome carrying cylindric, lightly complanate pseudobulbs subtended by several pairs of scarious bracts and 2 apical, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, attenuate to the short petiolate conduplicate base acute leaves with the mid-vein carinate, that blooms on an basal, 13" [32.5 cm] long, several to many [15 to 40] flowered inflorescence that has 5 to 6 distant bracts, decreasing in size from shaeth at the base and arises on a mature pseudobulb with fragrant flowers reminiscent of pepper with vanilla occuring in the fall and early winter in the northern hemisphere.

Synonyms Brassia helenae Rchb. f. ex Linden 1881; Brassia hexodonta Rchb.f & Wars. 1854; Brassia villosa Lindl. 1853; Oncidium helenae Rchb. f. 1861; Oncidium villosum [Lindl.]Rchb.f 1863

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854 as B hexodonta; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 1 1970 photo; Orchids from The Coast Of Ecuador Arosemana, Jurado, Estrada and Konanz 1988 photo ok; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum plate 610 Bennet & Christenson 1995 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 012 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Dodson Vol 1 1993 drawing fide; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005 drawing fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orquideas del Peru Freuler 2010 photo fide

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