Restrepia elegans H. Karst. 1847 Restrepia subgen. Restrepia sect. Restrepia Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt, plant grown by Dan Newman of Hanging Gardens

Flower Closseup Photo courtesy of Linda Karlbom

to and EARLY

Common Name The Elegant Restrepia

Flower Size 2" [5 cm]

Found from Venezuela, Colombia and Peru as a miniature sized, variable in size and flower color, caespitose, hot to warm growing epiphyte in wet montane forests at elevations around 700 to 2800 meters with the ramicaul enveloped by large, compressed, scarious sheaths and a single, apical, ovate-elliptic, minutely tridentate leaf that blooms on an apical, 2" [5 cm] long, erect to spreading, single flowered inflorescence subtended by large, white, amplexicaul, tubular bracts that has fasciculate, single flowers that appear sequentially occuring in the fall and early winter and the flowers are held above the leaves.

Synonyms Restrepia antennifera subsp. erythroxantha (Rchb.f.) H.Mohr 1996; Restrepia erythroxantha Rchb.f 1850

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 as R erythoxantha; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1969 as R erythroxantha; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 367 Bennett & Christenson 1995; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIII Systematics of Restrepia Luer 1996

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