Lophiaris crispiflora (Schltr.) Balam & Cetzal 2012

photos by Bogarin © and The Epidendra Website

part Shade Hot Cool LATESpring Summer

Common Name The Crisped Flower Lophiaris - In Costa Rica Spread Eagle Lophiaris

Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]

Found in Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama at elevations from sea level to 1100 meters as a large sized, hot to cool growing, mule eared epiphyte in humid deciduous forests on tree trunks and large branches that has a small bract covered pseudobulb that has a single, coriaceous to fleshy, elliptic, sharply keeled abaxially leaf that is conduplicate at the base, that blooms in the spring and summer on a basal, erect to arching, to 5' [to 150 cm] long, many laxly small flowered, panicle that has the peduncle subtended by a scarious sheath and scarious, triangular sheaths at the nodes.

This species is almost always found along river courses in high trees or on the rocks below and needs high light and humidity, a dry rest in the winter after the bloom season. This species grows best mounted on treefern or cork.

This species can be distinguished from the others by the white sepals with red briwn, magenta or pale pink blobs that are homogenous over all the area, and the different callus of the lip.

CAUTION !!!! This species has been split into three separate entities with Lophiaris oerstedii being found only in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, Lophiaris crispiflorum occurs only in eastern Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama and Lophiaris carthagensis occurs only in Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. I feel that all records of L carthagenisis in the Caribbean are most likely Lophiaris maculata but I have no absolute proof of this. More soon!.

Synonyms *Oncidium oerstedii var. crispiflorum Schltr. 1922; Trichocentrum crispiflorum (Schltr.) Bogarin 2014

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 17: 85. Schlechter 1922 as Oncidium oerstedii var. crispiflorum; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as Oncidium carthagense drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1570 Atwood 1993 as Oncidium carthagenense drawing fide; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1999 as Oncidium carthagenense drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 as Oncidium carthagenense drawing fide; *J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 14-18. Balam & Cetzal 2012 drawing fide; Lankesteriana 14(3): 274. Bogarin 2014 as Trichocentrum crispiflorum; Harvard Papers in Botany Vol 21 #2 Cetzal-Ix Carnevalli and Romero-Gonzalez 2016 Synopsis of the Trichocentrum Clade photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide

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