Cranichis polyantha Schlechter 1920 Polyantha Group 6
Photo by © Andreas Kaye and hisFlickr Photo Website
Photo by © Gary Yong Gee and his Gary Yong Gee Photo Website
Photo by © Patricia Harding
TYPE Drawing by © Mansfield
Drawing by © A Krol
Common Name or Meaning The Many Flowered Cranichis
Flower Size .16" [4 mm]
Found in Caqueta, Tolima, Cauca, Nariño departments of Colombia and Imbabura, Loja, Zamora-Chinchipe provinces of Ecuador and Amazonas department of Peru in wet montane and cloud forests at elevations around 2000 to 3200 meters as a small sized, cold growing terrestrial with 1 to 3, basal, lanceolate, acute, narrowing below into the thick, fleshy, elongate, channeled, petiolate base leaves that blooms at most any time of the year on an erect, scapose, peduncle 4.6 to 12" [11.5 to 30 cm] long, glabrous, provided with 2 to 4, remote sheathing bracts, rachis 2.6" [6.5 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence with leaf-like, infundibuliform, membraneous, green, with basally clasping tubular bases floral bracts and carrying small, nonresupinate flowers with the dorsal sepal all crystalline green or crystalline green with a reddish brown apical margin.
Distinguished from all others in the group by the single veined tepals, the foliaceous peduncle, the glabrous ovary, the fleshy lip with a distinct membraneous margin, the 3 nerved, papillose-verrucose disc, the minutely ciliolate margin, and the more or less obliquely elliptic, obtuse to rounded petals. From C longipetiolata it can be separated by the number of veins in the lateral sepals, which is two, and the petal margins are entire, C calva has three and the margins are erose. It is also similar to C ciliata but C polyantha differs in the leaf form, much longer inflorescence and the form of the petals,
Synonyms Cranichis polyantha var. caquetaensis Renz 1948
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 61 Schlechter 1920;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 47: 19 #69 1929 drawing fide;
Candollea 11: 262 Renz 1948 as Cranichis polyantha var. caquetaensis
Flora Brasilica Vol XII II 13-43: 129 Hoehne 1945 ;
Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Garay 1978;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 424 Dodson 1989 drawing fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 photo fide;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 224 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide;
Flora Of Ecuador # 76 225[2] Dodson & Luer 2005 drawing fide;
Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide;
Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing fide
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 3: 40 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2020 drawing fide
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 3: 41 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2020 drawing fide
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