Microchilus chocoensis (Ormerod) E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

TYPE Drawing by © Paul Ormerod and TAIWANIA, 54(1): 47 Ormerod 2009

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Common Name The Choco Microchilus [A department of western Colombia]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Choco department of Colombia in dense forests at elevations around 2000 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with an erect stem carrying 4 to 5, obliquely lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, margins undulate, above with a paler indistinct narrow stripe on the midvein, narrowing below into the petiolate base leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect, pubescent, 10" [25 cm] long overall, peduncle to 6.2 to 6.6" [15.5 to 16.5 cm] long, 3 to 4 bracted, scattered, lowest subfoliose, rachis to 3.4 to 3.6" [8.5 to 9 cm] long, laxly 10 to 14 flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, acute, just shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying externally sparsely pubescent, greenish white flowers.

"This species appears to be most closely related to its Colombian congener M popayanensis but it differs in having shorter 1" versus 4.8 to 6" (2.5 vs. 12 to 15 cm) long stems, with fewer (4 to 5 vs. 7 to 11), approximate (not laxly arranged) leaves and flowers with broader .056 versus .04" (1.4 vs. 1 mm) petals that have a distinct obtuse lobule (not a triangular angle) projecting from the lower margin of the apical third." Ormerod 2009

Synonyms *Aspidogyne chocoensis Ormerod 2009

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

TAIWANIA, 54(1): 46 Ormerod 2009 as Aspidogyne chocoensis drawing fide;

Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1: 427 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 as Aspidogyne chocoensis drawing fide;

* Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 197: 338 E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

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