Maxillaria tenuifolia Lindley 1837
Flower Closeup Photo By Jay Pfahl
Specimen Plant Photo courtesy of Paul Phelps and Phelps Farm Orchids
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Common Name The Coconut Orchid - The Delicate Leafed Maxillaria
Flower Size 1 1/2 to 2" [3.9 to 5 cm]
The Coconut Orchid, named for it's scent, occurs in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Niacaragua and Costa Rica as a medium sized, cool to hot growing, solitary leafed epiphyte or occaisiional terrestrial with an ascending growth habit found on trees in open or dense forests at low elevations up to 1500 meters, with a rhizome that is completely enveloped by scarious, imbricating, nonfoliaceous bracts with oblong-elliptic to oblong-obovate, compressed pseudobulb with a single apical, linear, attenuate leaf that blooms on a 2" [5cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising on a mature pseudobulb with scarious, basal bracts with the flower held at mid leaf height and occurs in spring and summer and then needs a semi-dry rest through the winter months, best mounted on tree fern.
Synonyms Maxillaria gracilifolia Kraenzel 1927; Maxillariella tenuifolia (Lindl.) M.A. Blanco & Carnevali 2007
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 867 Dodson 1983; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1366 Atwood 1989; Icones Orchidacearum I Plate 63 Hagsater & Salazar 1990; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1997;
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