Phragmipedium besseae Dodson & Kuhn 1981 Photo by © JOHN MARCOTTE and The Orchids of Canada Website
Flower and Plant in situ in Ecuador
Plant Habitat and Flowers Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt
LATE
and
Common Name Mrs. Besse's Phragmipedium [American Orchid Collector 20th century]
Flower Size 1 1/2 to 2 1/2" [4 to 6.5 cm]
Found on the eastern slopes of the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as a small sized, warm growing, lithophyte or terrestrial with no psuedobulbs on cliff-faces of riversides, on granite rocks, in wet montane forests at 1000 to 1500 meters with 6 to 10, linear to narrowly elliptic, coriaceous, dark green leaves in a broad fan shape where it blooms on a terminal, erect, 12 to 16" [30 to 40 cm]long, 1 to 4, succesive flowered, pubescent, racemose inflorescence that is shorter than the leaves with elliptic, boat-shaped bracts occuring in the late winter and spring.
Synonyms Paphiopedilum besseae (Dodson & J.Kuhn) V.A.Albert & Börge Pett. 1994
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*AOS Bulletin Vol 50 No 11 1981 photo/drawing; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 4 1986 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 56 No 7 1987 photo; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II plate 567 Dodson 1989 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 3 COS 1991 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 61 No 11 1992 photo; AOS Bulletin No 63 No 9 1994 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 No 11 1995 photo; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 346 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 66 No 2 1997 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 66 No 9 1997 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 66 No 12 1997 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 12 1998 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 68 No 8 1999 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 68 No 9 1999 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 69 No 1 2000 photo; Orchid Australia Vol 12 No 2 2000 photo; Orchids Australia Vol 13 No 2 2001 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 70 No 3 2001 drawing; AOS Bulletin Vol 71 No 11 2002 drawing; Australian Orchid Review Vol 68 No 5 2003 photo; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing/photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 69 No 4 2004 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 6 2005 photo; Orchid Digest Vol 71 No 1 2007 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 5 2007 photo; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo fide
Phragmipedium besseae var flava Dodson&Kuhn 1981
Color variation Photo courtesy of Allen Black
Synonyms Phragmipedium besseae f. flavum (Braem) O.Gruss & Roeth 1999
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids Australia Vol 10 No 3 1998 photo; Orchids Australia Vol 10 No 5 1998 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 68 No 8 1999 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 8 2003 photo; Australian Orchid Review Vol 69 No 4 2004 photo; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide
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