Oncidium serpens Lindl. 1833 SECTION Serpentia

InflorescencePhotos by Takato NATSU from Japan and his Japan Orchids Page

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Common Name The Snake-Like Oncidium

Flower Size .7" [1.7 cm]

Found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru on the western slopes of the Andes at elevations of 1500 to 2700 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte with 1.8" [4.5 cm] between each ovate, laterally compressed, smooth pseudobulbs envloped basally by several leafless sheaths and carrying a single, apical, stiff, leathery, oval, acute, narrowing below into the conduplicate petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on an arching to horizontal, axillary, 2" [5 cm] long, 2 to 3, successively single flowered inflorescence

The plant in the photo is most likely incorrect as it is a panicle of several simultaneous flowers and the type is with single successive flowers.

Synonyms Brevilongium serpens (Lindl.) Christenson 2006; Otoglossum serpens ( Lindl. ) N.H.Williams & M.W.Chase 2001

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 480 Dodson 1982 drawing not; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 3 3COS 1991 photo not; Lindleyana Vol 16 No 2 2001 as Otoglossum serpens; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing not; Orquideologia Vol. 23 No 2 2004; Orchid Species Culture Odontoglossum/Oncidium Alliance Bakers 2005 as Otoglossum serpens; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 10 2008 as Brevilongium serpens; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 as Otoglossum serpens photo not

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