!Mesospinidium warscewiczii Rchb. f. 1852 Photo courtesy of Bill Bergstrom and Bergstrom Orchids Homepage

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Common Name Warscewicz' Mesopinidium [Polish Orchid Collector in Central and South America 1800's]

Flower Size 1/4" [6 cm]

Found from Nicaragua to Panama in premontane cloud forests at elevations of 800 to 1200 meters as a miniature to small sized, warm to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte to 10" [25 cm] tall with elliptic-ovoid, laterally compressed pseudobulbs subtended by two or more leaf-bearing sheaths and has a single, apical, elliptic-lanceolate, subcoriaceous, carinate beneath, acute, conduplicate below into the petiolate base leaf, that blooms in the fall on a lateral, arcuate, or subpendant, 8 to 10" [20 to 25 cm] long, panicle arising on a mature pseudobulb with 10 to 15 smaller flowers that are loosely situated on the branches. This species is very similar to M endresii which is often cited as a synonym of this species, but they differ in that M warscewiczii has a single apical leaf and larger, different colored flowers.

Synonyms Mesospinidium endresii (Kraenzl.) Garay ex H.R.Sweet 1973; Solenidium endresii Kraenzl. 1922

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 874 Dodson 1983; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1565 Atwood 1993; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1565a Atwood 1993; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1997; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006;

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