Selenipedium palmifolium (Lindl.) Rchb. f. 1854

Another View in situ Trinidad Photo by © Patricia Harding

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Common Name The Palm-Leaf Selenipedium

Flower Size 2 to 2.8" [5 to 7 cm]

Found in Trinidad, Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil at elevations of sea level to 350 meters as a very large, hot to warm growing terrestrial found in poor acidic soil and medium shade with a terete, occasionally branching, densly and coarsely glandular-hairy stems carrying narrowly oblong to narrowly elliptic, glabrous above, sparsely pubescent below, acute leaves and blooms in the fall on a terminal, erect, to 8" [to 20 cm] long, few to several successively flowered inflorescence with broadly lanceolate, glandular-hairy floral bracts with never more than one flower at a time all occuring over several months.

Synonyms *Cypripedium palmifolium Lindl. 1840

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 drawing; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 1 1969; Boletim CAOB Vol 50 2003;

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