Bulbophyllum barbigerum Lindley 1837 SECTION Ptiloglossum Lindl. 1862
Photo by Jay Pfahl
Photo by Guy Ramette Vovan and his Gabon Orchids Website
Photo by Patricia Harding
to EARLY 
Common Name The Bearded Bulbophyllum
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm] This species occurs in Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo and Zaire on mossy tree trunks and in crowns of trees in evergreen and deciduous forests up to elevations of 900 to 2300 meters as a small sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte with orbicular or ovoid, somewhat flattened pseudobulbs carrying a single, apical, narrowly elliptic, emarginate leaf that blooms in the spring and early summer on a basal, 3 to 7 3/4" [7.5 to 19 cm] long, racemose, spreading or erect inflorescence with ovate bracts and carrying several to many foul smelling, hairy flowers.
I've been told that in the 1700's this plant was put forward as a missing link between plant and animal, it moves, wiggles, jerks and bobs. Looks as if it could talk.
Synonyms Phyllorchis barbigera (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 photo fide; Flora of Malaya Vol 1 Holttum 1953; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 # 10 1963; Encylopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 37 # 6 1968; Miniature Orchids Northen 1980; Die Orchideen lieferung 13 Schlechter/Brieger 1983; Die Orchideen lieferung 13 753 - 816 1983 photo fide; Orchid Monographs Vol 2 - A Taxonomic Revision of the Continental African Bulbophyllinae Vermeullen 1987 photo/drawing fide; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Laurent 1992 photo fide; An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992 photo fide; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Bulbophyllums and Their Allies Seigerist 2001; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2001; AOS Bulletin Vol 70 No 10 2001 photo fide; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 76 #1 2012 photo fide; A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species Gerritsen and Parsons 2013 photo fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 6 Epidendroideae Pt 3 Pridgeon, Cribb Chase & Ramussen 2014; Orchidaceae Of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlachetko, Ejsmont, Baranow, Grochocka, Nowak, Margonska and Naczk 2015 as B phaeopogon drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #2 2017 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 82 #1 2018 photo fide; The Orchid Review Vol 127 No 1328 December 2019 photo fide;
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