IOSPE PHOTOS

Flower Closeup Photos courtesy of Dario Melgar

THROUGH

Common Name The Broad Rachis Bulbophyllum - The Rat-Tailed Orchid

Flower Size 1/16” [2 mm]

Found in Florida, the Carribean, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia at elevations of sealevel to 1000 meters in tree tops within wet tropical forests as a small sized, hot growing epiphyte with cylindrical, quadrate pseudobulbs carrying 2 apical, narrowly ellipticgradually narrowing below into the conduplicate base leaves that blooms on a basal, erect to pendant, bracteate, 18” [50 cm] long inflorescence arisng on a mature pseudobulb that is swollen towards the apex with the flowers embedded into the rachis and arises in the spring through fall and needs hot, humid, slightly shaded conditions to thrive.

Synonyms Bulbophyllaria oerstedii Rchb.f. 1855; Bolbophyllaria pachyrachis (Griseb.) Rchb. f. 1861; Bulbophyllum ecuadorense Schltr. 1921; Bulbophyllum oerstedii (Rchb.f.) Hemsl. 1884; Bulbophyllum vinosum Schltr. 1918; Phyllorchis oerstedii (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Phyllorchis pachyrachis (A. Rich.) Kuntze 1891; *Pleurothallis pachyrachis A. Rich. 1850

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1855 as Bulbophyllaria oerstedii; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 Drawing fide; *Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 135. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as B vinosum; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 as B bracteolatum drawing fide; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 4 1970 drawing fide; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Scweinfurth 1970; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Dunsterville and Garay 1979 as B bracteolatum drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 as B oerstedii drawing fide; Bulbophyllums and Their Allies Seigerist 2001; AOS Bulletin Vol 69 No 4 2000 photo; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama 1993; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Hamer 1974 drawing/photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 013 Dodson 1980 drawing ok; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 626 Hamer & Doddson 1982 drawing ok; Orchids of Panama Williams 1985; Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1985; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 626a Las Orquideas De El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing ok; & Dodson 1985 as B oerstedii drawing ok; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II plate 0205 Dodson & Vasquez 1989 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1406 Mora & Atwood 1992 as B oerstedii drawing fide; An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003 as B oerstedii; Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005 as B oerstedii; Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchdis Hawkes 1965; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 drawing/photo fide;

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