Peristeria pendula Hooker 1836
Photos by Danny Lentz ©, plant grown by Atlanta Botanical Garden
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Common Name The Pendant Blooming Peristeria
Flower Size to 2" [to 5 cm]
This large sized, warm growing, epiphytic species is found from Trinidad & Tobago, Panama, French Guiana, Surinam, Guyana, Venezuela, northern Brazil, Ecuador and Peru in wet forests at elevations of 500 to 1100 meters with prominent, approximate, ovoid conical to oblong-subconical, deeply sulcate pseudobulbs carrying 3 to 4 apical, plicate, lanceolate-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate leaves with a slender, sulcate petiole and blooms in the winter till spring on a 6" [15 cm] long, pendulous, racemose, several [4 to 7] flowered inflorescence arising on a newly developing pseudobulb after the leaves have dropped, carrying strongly scented, fleshy flowers.
This myrmecophilus species is often found in conjunction with ants and may benefit from their presence.
Synonyms Peristeria lentiginosa Lodd. 1840; Peristeria maculata hort. 1843
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing ok; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VI Hoehne 1942; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 photo fide; Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Part 4 Foldats 1970 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 2 Pabst & Dungs 1977 drawing ok; Orquideologia Vol 12 No 3/4 1977/8 drawing; Orquideologia Vol 15 #1 Luer & Escobar 1981; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing ok; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo ok; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 39 pg 2437 - 2500 Brieger 2000 drawing good/photo not; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo hmm; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 #10 2019 photo fide;
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