!Hagsatera brachycolumna (L.O. Williams) R. González 1974 Photo courtesy of David Hunt

MOST OFTEN
THROUGH
Common Name The Short-Columned Hagsatera
Flower Size 1.2 to 1.6" [3 to 4 cm]
Found in Guerrero, Oaxaca and Mexico states of Mexico in windy, open, oak forests at elevations of 1400 to 1950 meters as a creeping, medium to large sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with a short rhizome giving rise to narrowly conical-fusiform, slightly compressed, purple-maroon pseudobulbs arising when mature from a node just below the swollen part of the pseuedobulbm and carrying a single, apical, suberect-arcuate, coriaceous, linear to lanceolate, obtuse, dull green leaf that gives rise to an axillary, racemose, 3/4 to 7/8" [2 to 2.2 cm] long, few to several [to 14] flowered inflorescence that arises on a newly forming pseudobulb with triangular, acute bracts and subcampanulate, nutant flowers that smell of old cheese and are clustered towards the apex and occuring most often in the late winter through spring
This species differs from H rosilloi [the only other species in the genus] by having longer and neater keels on the lip that is basically green with the margins and veins in purple but not entirely purple.
Synonyms Encyclia brachycolumna [L.O.Wms.] Dressler 1961; *Epidendrum brachycolumnum L.O. Williams 1942
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Cattleyas and Their Relatives Vol V Withner 1998; Icones Orchidacearum fascile 10 plate 1025 Hagsater & Soto 2008