Maxillaria alpestris Lindley 1845 Photo by © Ecuagenera Orchid Website

Another Flower Photo courtesy of Carlos Hajek

Part shadeWarmTo ColdWinterSpringSummerFall

Common Name The Alpine Maxillaria

Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]

This species is found as a small sized, caespitose, creeping, unifoliate epiphyte as well as a lithophyte at 900-3000 meters in wet montane forests with an elongate, creeping, sheathed rhizome with widely separated ovate, flattened, rugose pseudobulbs subtended by several, imbricating, distichous, scarious sheaths and carrying a single apical, narrowly elliptic, coriaceous, gradually narrows to the conduplicate, clasping base leaf with an obtuse apex that can bloom at most any time of the year on several from one pseudobulb, erect, basal, [2 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising on a mature pseudobulb and enveloped by distichous sheaths with solitary flowers held at leaf height. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela as a warm to cold growing epiphyte.

Synonyms Maxillaria baumanniana Schltr. 1920; Maxillaria chlorochila F. Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1899; Maxillaria compressibulba Schltr. 1929; Maxillaria xantholeuca Schltr. 1921; Maxillaria xantholeuca var. peruviana C. Schweinf. 1945; Sauvetrea alpestris (Lindl.) Szlach. 2007 publ. 2006; Sauvetrea xantholeuca (Schltr.) Szlach. 2007 publ. 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 as M baumanniana; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten III Ecuador Schlechter 1921 as M xantholeuca; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1965; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 551 Dodson 1982; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Orchids of Peru Plate 0104 Dodson & Bennett 1989; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II plate 530 Dodson 1989; Colombian Native Orchids Vol 3 COS 1991; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide wrong?

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