Eria bractescens Lindley 1841 SECTION Hymenaria

Flower Closeup

Photos courtesy of Dr. E.F. de Vogel, André Schuiteman, and Jaap Vermeulen and Their Netherlands National Herbarium Website. and Flora Malesiana Vol III

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Common Name The Bracteate Eria

Flower Size to about 1/2" [to about 1.4 cm]

Found in Assam, Bangladesh, Eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Andaman Islands, Myanamar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Moluccas, Sulawesi and the Philippines in lowland forests at elevations of 20 to 1800 meters as a small to medium sized, hot to warm growing, epiphytic species occuring on the upper branches and forks of tall trees with very stout, erect, egg shaped to subcylindrical, swollen, fleshy, 2 to 3 noded below the leaves, green aging to green/red brown with white longitudinal striped pseudobulbs enveloped basally by a few scarious sheaths and carrying 2 [rarely 3] apical, elliptical to oblong green, thick, leathery, obtuse to rounded and unequally bilobed apically, gradually narrrowing below into the narrowly clasping base leaves that blooms in the summer on a short to 6" [to 15 cm], axillary, suberect to spreading, purple to brown pubescent, bracteate, racemose, creamy white inflorescence arising from near the apex of the mature pseudobulb with a basal, triangular bract and 5 to 7 oblong, white, hairless bracts below the flowers and a reflexed, concave, oblong--elliptic, apiculate, hairless floral bract and carrying the the many [to 15] fragrant flowers crowded onto the apical half.

Often cited as Eria spicata, major difference E bractescens has 2 leaves at the apex of the pseudobulb, larger more open acute flowers with no fragrance while E spicata has 4 near the apex, sheathed leaves and smaller, cupped flowers with fragrance.

Synonyms Dendrobium subterrestre Gagnep. 1930; Eria bractescens var affinis [Griff.] Hkr. f. 1890; Eria dillwynia Hkr. 1845; Eria griffithii Rchb.f. 1870; Eria kurzii Anderson ex Hook.f. 1890; Eria litoralis Teijsm. & Binn 1862; Eria pulchella Griff. 1851; Pinalia bractescens [Lindl.] O.Ktze. 1891; Pinalia pulchella Kuntze 1891; Tropilis subterrestris (Gagnep.) Rauschert 1983

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/1995; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 drawing hmm shows bilobed lip; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 5 1958 drawing; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 as Dendrobium subterrestre; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; The Orchids of Papua New Guinea An Introduction Millar 1978 photo ok; Orchidiana Philipiniana Vol 1 Valmayor 1984; The Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia and Singapore Wood & Seidenfaden 1992 drawing fide; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; Lowland Orchids of of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Byrne 1994 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of Sarawak Beaman & Wood 2001 photo fide; Orchids of Sumatra Comber 2001 photo fide; Orchids of the Philippines Cootes 2001 photo fide; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Orchid Flora Of Kamrup District Assam Iswar Chandra Barua 2001; Lindleyana Vol 17 No 1 2002; Flora Malesiana Orchids of the Philippines Vol I Agoo, Shuiteman and de Vogel 2003; Flora Malesiana Orchids of New Guinea Vol III Shuiteman and de Vogel 2006; The Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 drawing ok;

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