Cranichis saccata Ames 1923 Ocampoa Group
Photos by © Franco Pupulin, Used under permission of Epidendra Website CR
Drawing of Ocampoa saccata by © N Oledrzynska and Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 102: 725 Szlach. & Kolan. 2017
Common Name The Sack-Shaped Cranichis
Flower Size
Found in Cartago province of Costa Rica in pastures and on wet roadbanks at elevations around 1400 to 2000 meters as a small sized, cool growing terrestrial with 3, basal, spreading, membranaceous, ovate, acute to apiculate, rounded below into the petiolate base leaves that blooms in the summer on an erect, terminal, peduncle 8.4" [21 cm] long, glandular-pubescent above the middle, provided with 3 cauline leaves and a few sheathing bracts, rachis 3.6" [9 cm] long, laxly, 10 to 15 flowered inflorescence with oblong-lanceolate, almost glabrous, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying whote flowers with green veins on the lateral lobes of the lip.
"Cranichis saccata is distinguished by its deeply 3-lobed lip, lateral lobes with crenate margins, and presence of an erect callus at the lip base. Unlike C lehmanniana, the other Ocampoa group representative with an ornamented lip, the leaves of C saccata are short (less than 1.8" [4.5 cm] long vs. leaves up to 6.4" [16 cm] long). In this aspect, C. saccata resembles C. acuminatissima, but those two orchids may be easily distinguished based on lip lobation (prominent middle lobe observed in C. saccata) and width to length lip ratio (lip longer than wide in C. saccata vs. lip as long as wide in C. acuminatissima)." Szlach. & Kolan. 2017
Synonyms Ocampoa saccata (Ames) Szlach. & Kolan. 2017
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ;
* Schedul. Orchid. 4: 6 Ames 1923
Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Hammel, Grayum,Herrera and Zamora 2003
Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 102: 725 Szlach. & Kolan. 2017 as Ocampoa saccata
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