Encyclia elegantula Dressler 2004
Photo by © Dressler and The Epidendra Website
Photo by © Rick Cirino
LATE 
EARLY
Common Name The Small Elegant Encyclia
Flower Size 1 1/2" [3.75 cm]
Found in Chiriqui province of Panama in cloud forests at elevations around 930 to 950 meters as a miniature to small sized, warm growing epiphyte with conic-ovoid pseudobulbs carrying 2 to 3 leaves that blooms in the late summer and early fall on a terminal, erect, paniculate, 5 to 6 branched, each branch 1.6 to 2.4" [4 to 6 cm] long, peduncle 14 to 15.6" [35 to 39 cm] long, rachis 8 to 10" [20 to 25 cm] long, overall 22 to 26" [55 to 65 cm] long, many flowered inflorescence.
Very similar to Encyclia amanda but this one differs in the much wider petals, the heavily sculptured midlobe and in the more verruculose sepals, as well as the isthmus of the lip is curled under on both sides and there is a thick wart basally on each side. The flowers are also much darker in coloration and the inflorescence is much more densly flowered.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Orchid Digest 68(4): 244, figs. Dressler 2004 drawing/photo fide
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:454 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 drawing fide;
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